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SPRINGS, STREAMS, AND SPAS 
OF LONDON 



'IIP' w> 




CORXHILL PUMP (l8oo). 
After a print in the Guildhall Art Collections. 



SPRINGS, STREAMS 

AND SPAS OF LONDON 

HISTORY AND ASSOCIATIONS 



Sy ALFRED STANLEY FOORD 



WITH TWENTY-SEVEN 
ILLUST RATIONS 



NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 









{All rights reserved.) 



CONTENTS 

I'AGE 

Introduction . . . . . . .15 

PART I 

STREAMS AND SPAS NORTH OF 
THE THAMES 

CHAPTER I 
The Wallbrook, and Parts of the City Adjacent . 25 

Early water-supply — Walebroc — Wallbrook — Barge 
Yard, Bucklersbury — Dour or Dowgate — Tokenhouse 
Yard — Remains of tan-pits — Finsbury — Subterranean 
aqueduct noticed by Mr. Roach Smith — Blomfield 
Street — All Hallows on the Wall — Bethlehem Hospital 
— Tower Royal Street and Cloak Lane — Channel of the 
Wallbrook — Roman Wall of London in relation to the 
Wallbrook — Bank of England : stream first reached in 
digging a foundation for the original building — Dow- 
gate Hill — Churches on banks of the Wallbrook : St. 
Mildred's, Poultry ; St. Stephen's, Wallbrook ; St. John 
the Baptist upon Wallbrook — Halls of the Livery 
Companies along or near its banks — Cutlers', Dyers', 
Joiners', and Innholders' Halls — Bridges over the 
Wallbrook — National Safe Deposit : excavations on 
its site — Stocks Market — Langbourne Stream — 
Sharebourne. 

5 



Contents 

CHAPTER II 

PAGE 

The Holebourne or Fleet, Tybourne, Westbourne, 

and Serpentine . . . . .40 

Fleet River— Ditch— Bridge— Turnmill Brook— River 
of Wells — Holebourne (or Fleet) : its source and 
direction traced — Blemund's Ditch— Tybourne Brook : 
its course described — Marylebone Lane twice crossed 
by it— Formed a delta at Thorney Island, West- 
minster — Kilburn Stream, an affluent of the 
Westbourne — Aye or Eye Brook — Eia Estate — 
Bayswater Brook, a name applied to the Westbourne 
— Course of the stream defined — Serpentine : formed 
at the instigation of Queen Caroline — Old maps of 
Middlesex. 

CHAPTER III 

Holy Wells and Well Worship . . .53 

Holy wells — Enactments against offerings at springs 
in Saxon times — Survival of superstitions relating to 
them — Flower - dressing of wells : a custom still 
observed at Tissington in Derbyshire — Offerings of 
coins — Holy wells in London. 

CHAPTER IV 

Central London Group of Wells and Spas . . 58 

St. Bride's Well — Milton's lodgings in the churchyard 
— Clement's Well — Stow's evidence as to its position 
and identification — Allusions to it by later writers — 
Evidence of the Ordnance Survey maps — Holy Well, 
Strand — Remarks of various observers regarding its 
true position — Gray's Inn Lane — Bagnigge House and 
Wells — Origin of the name — Nell Gwynne at Bagnigge 
House — Properties of the water — Battle Bridge — 
Black Mary's Hole — St. Chad's Well : its many vicissi- 
tudes — Pancras Wells and garden — Visit of Pepys 
thereto — Holt Waters — Sadler's Music House and 
Wells — Sadler succeeded by Miles and Forcer — The 
Theatre and notable performers — It sinks to a low- 

6 



Contents 

PAGE 

type music-hall — Islington Spa, or New Tunbridge 
Wells — At one time a fashionable resort — The pro- 
prietor's house — Rosebery Avenue — London Spaw — 
New Wells near the latter — Priory of St. John of 
Jerusalem — Clerks' Well — Miracle or Mystery Plays 
performed there — St. Mary's Nunnery, Clerkenwell — 
Hockley in the Hole — Skinners' Well — Fagswell — 
Godewell — Loder's Well — Radwell — Crowder's Well — 
Monkswell — St. Agnes le Clere — Well or pool — Mineral 
Baths — Perilous Pond, later called Peerless Pool — 
Swimming - bath and fishing - pond — The former 
survived to nineteenth century. 

CHAPTER V 

North and East London Group of Wells and Spas . 115 

Holywell, Shoreditch — Conventual House of St. John 
the Baptist at Haliwell — Position of the well discussed 
— Hoxton "Balsamic Wells'' — Dr. Byfield's account of 
them in 1687 — Shadwell — Sun Tavern Fields : mineral 
spring — Postern Waters, Tower Hill — Hackney — Its 
Wells and Springs — Pig or Pyke Well — Churchfield 
Well— Shacklewell— Wells at Tottenham— Offertory 
or Cell of St. Eloy — Hermitage and Chapel of St. Anne 
—Bishop's Well — Well in Spotton's Wood— St. 
Dunstan's Well — Bruce Castle — Woodford Wells ; a 
mineral spring near the " Horse and Groom " — Chig- 
well — Derivation of the name — Purgative spring in 
Chigwell Row — Muswell Hill — Two ancient wells, 
differing in quality. 

CHAPTER VI 

North-West London Group of Wells and Spas . 137 

Hampstead — Geological features described — Chaly- 
beate wells — The Assembly Rooms in Wells Walk ; 
celebrities who frequented them — Wells Charity Estate 
and Baptist Noel, Earl of Gainsborough — Mr. Good- 
win's discovery of a medicinal spring near Pond Street 
— Analysis of the Wells Walk spring — Barnet Wells 

7 



Contents 

— Purgative spring — Visited by Pepys — Lysons' 
mention of it — Chalybeate spring at Northaw — Trick 
of practical jokers — Acton Wells — An attractive resort 
in Queen Anne's reign — Kilburn Wells and Priory — 
History of the latter — Pleasure gardens attached to 
the Wells — Analyses of the waters. 



CHAPTER VII 
West London Group of Wells and Spas . . . 165 

Marylebone Gardens and medicinal spring — Known 
as Marybone Spa — Mentioned in J. T. Smith's " Book 
for a Rainy Day" — Powis Wells in Lamb's Conduit 
Fields — Assemblies for dancing held in Long Room — 
Kensington Wells— St. Govor's Well— St. Agnes' Well 
of medicinal water — Frequented chiefly by the lower 
orders — Medicinal spring at Earl's Court mentioned by 
Faulkner. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Mineral Springs as Remedial Agents . . 173 

Thermal waters : their temperature, whence derived — 
the mineral matter they contain — British and foreign 
waters compared — Analysis in its application to mineral 
waters very imperfectly understood before the nine- 
teenth century. 

PART II 

STREAMS AND SPAS SOUTH OF 
THE THAMES 

CHAPTER I 

The Effra, Falcon Brook, and Neckinger . 181 

South London : physical features — Effra River — John 
Aubrey makes no mention of it — Brayley's allusion to 
it — Tracing of its entire course — Branch of the Effra 

8 



Contents 

PAGE 

near Kennington Church — Another arm of the Effra 
— Falcon Brook — The Neckinger Stream : its rise and 
course — Navigable for small craft — Tanneries and mills 
on its banks — St. Saviour's Dock. 



CHAPTER II 

South London Spas and Wells . . . 190 

Bermondsey Spa — Opened by an artist, Thomas Keyse 
— Mr. William Herbert, one of the singers engaged 
here ; he afterwards became first librarian of the Guild- 
hall Library — Gallery of Paintings by Keyse — Picture 
model of siege of Gibraltar — Lambeth Wells — Dancing 
and musical entertainments — Water esteemed service- 
able in disorders of the eyes — " Dog and Duck," other- 
wise St. George's Spa — Its career under Hedger — Old 
stone sign of the inn let into wall of Bethlehem Hos- 
pital — Ladywell — Two wells here : one medicinal — 
Coping-stones preserved and form the rim of a drinking 
fountain at the Ladywell Public Baths — Shooter's Hill 
— Its height and structure — John Evelyn drinks the 
waters of the mineral spring here — Dipping Well on 
the top of the hill. 



CHAPTER III 

Outlying Spas and Wells of South London . 207 

Camberwell — Evelyn's record of a visit — Different 
theories about the origin of the name — Lysons, Bray, 
Salmon, and Allport — Well at Dr. Lettsom's Villa at 
Grove Hill — Milkwell Manor — Effects of an iron spring 
upon the water in the public baths in the Old Kent 
Road — Dulwich Wells — Manor of Dulwich presented 
to the Prioryof Bermondsey by Henry I. — Bew's Corner 
— Grove Tavern — The sinking of a well in the grounds 
by the proprietor Cox leads to discovery of a purging 
water — John Martyn experimented on the water, which 
was supplied to St. Bartholomew's Hospital — Syden- 
ham Wells — Evelyn, an early visitor here — Called also 

9 



Contents 

PAGE 

Dulwich Wells — John Peter, a physician, writes the 
first detailed account of Sydenham Wells — Wells 
Cottage in Wells Road — George III.'s visit to the cot- 
tage — Thomas Campbell's house at Sydenham — Beulah 
Spa — Beauty of its situation — Not known when or how 
the mineral spring was discovered — Described by Dr. 
Weatherhead — Analysis of the water by Professor 
Faraday — Entertainments recorded — Mr. J. Corbet 
Anderson on the spa and well open when he wrote — 
Mineral spring at Biggin Hill — Analysis of the water — 
Streatham Wells — First account of them by Aubrey — 
Circumstances of their discovery — Well House, now 
The Rookery — Closing of the old spring and opening of 
another on Lime Common — Miss Priscilla Wakefield 
tastes the water — Analysis of the water made by 
Messrs. Redwood and de Hailes in 1895. 



CHAPTER IV 

Wells at Richmond and East Sheen . . 238 

Richmond Wells — Saline spring — Noticed by Dr. 
Benjamin Allen in 1699 — House of entertainment — 
Balls and concerts advertised — Dissipated company at 
the Wells — Raffling and card-playing — The place 
eventually purchased by the Misses Houblon — Well 
at East Sheen, adjoining Palewell Park. 



PART III 

CONDUIT SYSTEM OF WATER-SUPPLY 

CHAPTER I 

The London Basin, Shallow Wells, City Conduits . 247 

Geology of the London Basin — Tyburn Conduit — 
Population of London — Great Conduit in Chepe — Pay 
of workmen — Little Conduit — Conduit at Stocks 
Market — The Standard opposite the end of Honey 
Lane — John Lydgate — Pageants — Catherine of Ara- 

10 



Contents 

gon's state entry into London — The Tonne, or Tun, 
upon Cornhill — Stow's explanation of the name — 
Charterhouse, provided its own water-supply — Con- 
duits at London Wall, Coleman Street, Bishopsgate. 



CHAPTER II 
Conduits without the City 264 

The White Conduit — Supplied water to the Carthusian 
Friars — Fleet Street — Its water-supply — Fleet Street 
Standard — Cistern made to receive its overflow — 
Thames water used by Londoners — Springs in Pad- 
dington granted by the Abbot of Westminster to the 
Mayor and citizens of London — Water from springs 
at Hackney — Banqueting House on the site of Strat- 
ford Place, with cisterns in the basement — Lamb's 
Conduit — References to the Conduits in the Letter 
Books — Keepers or wardens to look after them — 
Measures taken to restrain keepers of brew-houses and 
others from making ale with the water from the 
Conduits — Tynes and tankards used for conveying 
water — Grants of Quills — The London Waterbearers — 
Their petition — Waterbearers' Hall — List of Conduits 
removed — The Standard in Cornhill a point of 
measurement for distances from the City — Explanation 
of a complete service on the Conduit System. 

CHAPTER III 

Conduits without the City, continued — London 

Bridge Water Works 282 

Bayswater or Roundhead Conduit — Its position and 
course indicated — Remarks by Matthews in 
" Hydraulia " — Mr. Morley Davies on the " Round- 
head" — Paddington Conduit System transferred from 
the City to the Bishop of London and Trustees of 
Paddington Estate — Ancient Conduit in Queen Square, 
Bloomsbury — Identification of the White Conduit — 
Conduit near Hyde Park Corner — Conduit House in 
Greenwich Park — Underground passages in the Park ; 

11 



Contents 

PAGE 

their elaborate construction — Wooden water-pipes — 
Use of tree-trunks for water-pipes abroad — Morice 
and his London Bridge Water Works — The engine 
described — Other schemes for supplying London with 
water. 

CHAPTER IV 
The New River — Artesian Wells .... 307 

Hugh Myddelton and the New River — Appeals against 
its construction by landowners and others — Myddelton 
receives financial assistance from the King — And a loan 
from the Corporation of London — Opening ceremony 
on Michaelmas Day, 1613, described by Stow — Mono- 
poly established to oblige consumers to use the New 
River Company's water — Great value of King's and 
Adventurers' shares — Transference of the New River 
Company's business to the Metropolitan Water Board 
— Artesian Wells. 



APPENDIX 

Shallow or Surface Wells and Pumps of London . 325 

Index 343 



12 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



cornhill pump, 1800 . . . .Frontispiece 

After a print in the Guildhall Art Collections 

TO FACE PAGE 

THE MOUTH OF THE FLEET RIVER, CIRCA 1 765 . . 41 

Guildhall Art Collections 

BAGNIGGE WELLS GARDENS . . . . -73 

Frontispiece to the Sunday Ramble {circa 1774), in the Guildhall Library 

ST. chad's well, showing the pump room and house, 
circa 1830 . . . . . -74 

Drawn by the Author from a pencil sketch in the Guildhall Library 

SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF SADLER'S WELLS . . .89 

From a drawing by R. C. Andrews, 1792 ; together with a view of an 
earlier building ; both from Wilkinson's " Londina Illustrata" 

ISLINGTON SPA ; OR NEW TUNBRIDGE WELLS . . 92 

View of the Gardens, Well, Coffee House, &c, engraved by G. Bickham, 
jun., as the headpiece to " The Charms of Dishabille ; or, New Tunbridge 
Wells," a song published in Bickham's Musical Entertainer, 1733 

ISLINGTON SPA ; OR NEW TUNBRIDGE WELLS . . 96 

From a photograph of the proprietor's house in 1907 

HAMPSTEAD ASSEMBLY AND PUMP ROOMS IN WELL WALK . 141 
The original drawing by E. H. Dixon bears no date, but was probably 
done before 1725. Drawn by the author from the reproduction in 
" Records of Hampstead " by F. E. Baines 

HAMPSTEAD (NEW) ASSEMBLY ROOMS ON THE NORTH-WEST 

SIDE OF WELL WALK ..... I47 

Drawn by the author from the print by Chatelaine of 1745 

ACTON OLD WELLS, 1795 ...... 156 

Drawn by the author from the view in Lysons' " Environs of London," 
Guildhall Library 

ST. GOVOR'S WELL, KENSINGTON GARDENS . . . 171 

From a photograph taken in 1910 

INTERIOR OF THE " DOG AND DUCK," ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS, 

1789 ....... I98 

From a stipple engraving, Guildhall Art Collections 

13 



List of Illustrations 



TO FACE PAGE 

THE OLD LADY WELL (LEWISHAM), 1842 . . . 203 

Drawn by the author from " Knight's Journey Book of England " 

FOUNTAIN AT LADYWELL BATHS, CONTAINING THE COPING- 
STONES OF THE OLD LADY WELL . . . 203 
Drawn by the author from a photograph 

SYDENHAM WELLS EARLY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . 2l8 
Drawn by the author from an old print belonging to Mr. J. T. Coling 

WELLS COTTAGE, SYDENHAM . . . . . 2l8 

From a photograph taken in 1903. The well was behind the palings 
on the left of the picture 

BEULAH SPA, VIEW OF THE GREAT LAWN, WELL HOUSE, 

REFECTORY, &C. ...... 222 

Drawn by the author from a wood-engraving in the Illustrated London 
News, July 26, 1851 

BEULAH SPA ....... 226 

From a photograph taken in 1903 

STREATHAM (NEW) WELLS HOUSE .... 237 

From a photograph taken about 1902 

"THE ROOKERY," STREATHAM COMMON, FORMERLY CALLED 

" WELL HOUSE " . . . . . . 237 

From a photograph taken about 1900 

STREATHAM (NEW) WELLS HOUSE, 1 83 1 . . . 235 

Drawn by the author from an indian-ink wash drawing by E. A. 
Tylor, in the Rendle Collection, Guildhall Library 

THE TUN UPON CORNHILL, CIRCA 1630 . . . 262 

After a print in the Guildhall Library 

BAYSWATER CONDUIT ...... 282 

Drawn by the author from the engraving of 1798 in the Guildhall Library 

CONDUIT-HOUSE IN HYDE PARK .... 292 

From an original drawing by the author 

CONDUIT-HOUSE OR STANDARD IN GREENWICH PARK . 293 

From a photograph taken in 1908 

WOODEN WATER-PIPES AT CLERKENWELL . . . 296 

From a reproduction by Mr. F. W. Reader of the drawing in the 
Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields 

PUMP IN CHURCHYARD OF ST. DUNSTAN-IN-THE-EAST . 330 

From an original sketch by the author in 1909 

Some of the illustrations in the foregoing list have been copied from works 
in the Guildhall Library. Tlie author hereby desires to thank the Library 
Committee for kindly permitting him to reproduce them. He also takes this 
opportunity of thanking the Editor of the Illustrated London News for the like 
courtesy in allowing him to use the engraving qf Beulah Spa. 

14 



INTRODUCTION 

THE history of the various sources and means 
whereby the City of London, and the suburbs 
which later grew up around it, derived their water- 
supply, may be found scattered through the pages 
of innumerable books, pamphlets, and magazines, as 
well as in the columns of newspapers, ranging from 
the seventeenth century to the present time, in which 
a variety of information has been published, bearing 
more or less directly upon the subject. London's 
water-supply is a theme that has been treated by 
different writers from very diverse points of views — 
traditional, historical, anecdotal, and statistical — but 
in no single volume, so far as the writer can learn, 
has any attempt hitherto been made to collect the 
stray fragments, and to piece them together so as 
to form something like a consecutive story. The 
chief aim of the present compilation has therefore 
been in the direction of carrying out this idea of 
continuity of narration, by sketching the gradual pro- 
gress effected in the means of water-supply, from 
the crude methods of the earlier denizens of London, 
when they depended for their requirements upon 
streams and shallow wells, down to the more matured 
system of a house-to-house service. 

i5 



Introduction 

A great many volumes upon London have been 
consulted — from FitzStephen and Stow, to Maitland 
and Besant. Maps and plans have also proved 
invaluable in their record of the successive stages in 
the annals of the Great City's water-supply : these 
have been examined and compared with later and 
contemporary plans, including the publications of the 
Ordnance Survey. The Crace collection I of maps 
and views of London is a veritable mine of information 
to the student of the capital : the maps, some of which 
are rare and unique, form a continuous series from 
1560 to 1859 ; many of the drawings have an artistic 
as well as an antiquarian interest, and often inciden- 
tally illustrate bygone manners and customs. No one 
writing about London can dispense with so rich a 
depository. 

The very nature of the subject dealt with in the 
following pages has necessitated frequent quotations 
from the works of the earlier writers, many of whom 
lived in the times they treat of; the people, places, and 
scenes which they depict thus coming under their own 
observation. In this respect they enjoyed an im- 
measurable advantage over those who, after a lapse of 
years and with impressions faded, have attempted, as 
it were, to repeople a world, and to reconstruct scenes 
that have long passed out of existence. But the 
present-day writer may be said to possess this 
advantage over his predecessors ; that within his 
reach are ancient records, which have been translated 

1 The whole collection, which was purchased in 1880 by the 
Trustees of the British Museum from Mr. J. G. Crace, con- 
sists of between 5,000 and 6,000 prints and drawings, besides 
three volumes of maps, &c. 

16 



Introduction 

by scholars in recent years from the mediaeval Latin 
and Norman-French of the originals. For this most 
useful work, all inquirers into the social and muni- 
cipal history of ancient London are under special 
obligation to the late Mr. H. T. Riley, who edited the 
" Mediaeval Chronicles and Memorials " series of the 
Master of the Rolls, with the title of " Munimenta 
Gildhallae Londoniensis." These include the " Liber 
Horn," 1 compiled about 1311-1314 ; the "Liber Cus- 
tumarum," compiled about the year 1320 ; both works 
containing valuable compilations of City laws and 
customs ; and the " Liber Albus," compiled in i4ioby 
John Carpenter, Common Clerk in the mayoralty of 
Richard Whittington. As regards the varied con- 
tents of the " Liber Albus," Mr. Riley himself writes 
at considerable length in his Introduction. "There 
is," he says, " hardly a phase or feature of London 
life, from the time of the Conqueror to the reign of 
Henry V., upon which, in a greater or less degree, 
from the pages of the ' Liber Albus,' some light is not 
reflected." Another prolific source of information is 
an Analytical Index to Civic Records known as the 
" Remembrancia," consisting of nine manuscript 
volumes of correspondence, covering the period from 
1579 to 1664. This Index was published in 1878, with 
valuable notes, by the Guildhall Library Committee. 
There are also Riley's " Memorials of London, and 
London Life," from circa 1275 to 14 19, founded on the 
Letter Books A to I of the Corporation for that period. 
This series of volumes is so called from their beino- 
severally distinguished by a letter of the alphabet from 

1 Named from Andrew Horn, Chamberlain of London, an 
office he probably held for about eight years : died 1328. 

17 B 



Introduction 

A to Z, and from A A to ZZ, comprising just fifty 
volumes, and in point of time extending from the early 
years of the reign of Edward I. almost to the close of 
the reign of James II. The earlier volumes possess 
the greater interest, inasmuch as they contain the 
chief, if not the only existing record of the proceedings 
of the Court of Common Council and Court of Alder- 
men prior to the fifteenth century, commencing about 
140 years before the Journals of the Common Council 
which date from 14 16. These Letter Books have 
been edited by Dr. Reginald R. Sharpe (1899). 

The contents of these records were early appre- 
ciated and partially extracted from. Fabyan, 1 Stow, 
Strype, Seymour, and indeed almost every City 
historian, have had recourse to them. Of the use 
made of them by Stow we have only to turn to 
the recent scholarly version of the "Survey of 
London" (1908), in which the editor, Mr. Lethbridge 
Kingsford, draws attention to passages in that famous 
classic which had been extracted from the archives 
at the Guildhall. It is certain, says Mr. Kingsford, 
that Stow used the "Liber Albus" and "Liber Custu- 
marum," but it is not so clear that he was acquainted 
with the "Liber de Antiquis Legibus." 2 The next 
writer, probably, who was indebted for any of his 

1 Alderman Robert Fabyan, Sheriff in 1493, was buried in 
St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1513. He compiled an elaborate 
Chronicle dealing with France as well as England, which he 
called "The Concordance of Histories," and which Stow 
characterises as " a painful labour to the honour of the City 
and the whole realm." 

a " Liber de Antiquis Legibus " — temp. Edward I., published 
in 1846 from the City Records as an addition to the Chroniques 
de Londres in 1844. 

18 



Introduction 

matter to the Letter Books and other compilations 
at the Guildhall, was the indefatigable Rymer 
(1641-1713). His " Fcedera " is a collection of 
leagues, treaties, alliances, &c, between the Crown 
of England and other Kingdoms, and is of high 
value and authority for almost all periods of the 
Middle Ages and for the sixteenth century. The 
first volume was published in 1704. It opens with 
a Convention between Henry I. and Robert, Earl 
of Flanders, dated May 17, 1101. The latest 
document was dated 1654. Strype, the historian 
and ecclesiologist, in preparing his elaborate edition 
of Stow's "Survey" (1720) was evidently at con- 
siderable pains to consult the City archives, with 
the view of improving upon Stow's rather scanty 
information as to the early history of its institutions. 

It may seem superfluous to add that in a subject 
which engaged the attention of so many competent 
writers, there can be little left that is really new or 
original to say about it. A few facts, however, 
which appear to have hitherto escaped notice, have 
been introduced into these pages, more especially in 
connection with some of the later-discovered medi- 
cinal springs. 

To guard against the repetition of errors which 
are known to occur in the writings of some of the 
older historians (and unfortunately copied by later 
ones), either through inadvertence, or more frequently 
perhaps from the want of facilities for obtaining 
authentic information — statements of fact, as well 
as dates (where there was reason to suspect in- 
accuracy) have been carefully verified, and, where 
possible, from the original sources. But in saying 

19 



Introduction 

this, the author does not suggest that he may not 
himself have fallen into some errors, which, in a 
subject covering so large an extent of ground, will, 
in spite of every effort to ensure accuracy, creep in. 
Those who may be led by the perusal of this book 
to desire more detailed information of any persons 
or incidents, can obtain it by consulting such works 
as are referred to in the text and in the foot-notes, 
which may usually be seen at one or other of the 
great public libraries. 

With regard to the plan adopted : it has been found 
most convenient to divide the subject into three parts, 
of which the first deals with the streams and spas 
north of the Thames ; the second with those on the 
south side of the river ; the third part being devoted 
to a short review of the earlier methods of transport 
and distribution of water by means of the conduit 
system ; concluding with some observations upon the 
New River Company, from its inception as a private 
undertaking down to the time when it was numbered 
among the Great Water Companies of London. A 
chapter upon Holy Wells and their origin, and 
another upon Mineral Waters, are also included. 

Beyond the information that books can give, a 
point is at length reached when recourse must be 
had to personal knowledge and unwritten, or they 
might be called living recollections. 

My thanks are due, and are here most gratefully 
tendered, to all who have assisted me during the 
progress of my book. On occasions when personal 
or local knowledge could alone clear up a doubtful 
point or difficulty, my applications have invariably 
met with a courteous response, which I have greatly 

20 



Introduction 

appreciated. I also owe a special debt of gratitude 
for the ready and frequently unsolicited help which 
I have received at the Guildhall Library. To the 
librarians of many of the suburban libraries I desire 
likewise to express my warm acknowledgments for 
valuable information, and for facilities which they 
have afforded me in the furtherance of my work. 

With regard to the illustrations : the view of Acton 
Wells Assembly-house has, the author believes, never 
before been reproduced ; that of St. Chad's Well 
has certainly never appeared elsewhere ; and the 
same remark applies to the drawing of the fountain 
at Ladywell Baths. A drawing was made by the 
author of the Conduit-house in Hyde Park because 
of the difficulty of getting a satisfactory photograph, 
owing to its awkward position close to the Park 
railings. The drawing of the pump in the church- 
yard of St. Dunstan-in-the-East is from an original 
sketch by the author. 



21 



PART I 

STREAMS AND SPAS NORTH OF 
THE THAMES 



CHAPTER I 

THE WALLBROOK, AND PARTS OF THE CITY 
ADJACENT 

Early water-supply — Walebroc — Wallbrook — Barge Yard, 
Bucklersbury — Dour or Dowgate — Tokenhouse Yard — 
Remains of tanpits — Finsbury — Subterranean aqueduct 
noticed by Mr. Roach Smith — Blomfield Street — All 
Hallows on the Wall — Bethlehem Hospital — Tower Royal 
Street and Cloak Lane — Channel of the Wallbrook — 
Roman Wall of London in relation to the Wallbrook — 
Bank of England : stream first reached in digging a 
foundation for the original building — Dowgate Hill — 
Churches on banks of the Wallbrook : St. Mildred's, 
Poultry ; St. Stephen's, Wallbrook ; St. John the Baptist 
upon Wallbrook — Halls of the Livery Companies along or 
near its banks — Cutlers', Dyers', Joiners', and Innholders' 
Halls — Bridges over the Wallbrook — National Safe 
Deposit : excavations on its site — Stocks Market — Lang- 
bourne Stream — Sharebourne. 

FOR nearly two hundred years after the Conquest 
London obtained ample supplies of pure water, 
partly from the streams flowing near to or passing 
through it, and partly from wells sunk into the sands 
above the chalk. The river-side population doubtless 
found in "silver" Thames an abundant and never- 
failing store. In streets more remote from the river, 
sources more accessible were at hand. Such were 
the brooks, the names of which still survive in 

25 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Walbrook, Holborn (formerly Oldbourne or Hole- 
bourne), and Langbourne, though modern authorities 
doubt the existence of such a stream as Stow 
describes, the name "long borne," which he gives it, 
being merely based on its supposed meaning. More 
distant from the City — westward — were the Tybourne 
and the Westbourne. 

Although the rapid disappearance of Old London 
before the inexorable march of " improvements " 
must always be a matter for regret, yet the very 
destruction and removal of ancient buildings, by 
laying bare large tracts, have often afforded oppor- 
tunities to competent observers to elucidate problems 
in the early history of the metropolis which might 
otherwise have remained unsolved. In this way — 
to give an example — it has been possible to trace the 
course of a stream, such as the Wallbrook, with 
considerable exactness, and by the same means to 
discover, or perhaps rediscover, some ancient well 
or watercourse. 

The first water-supply of London within the walls 
was in all probability furnished by the Wallbrook, 
which was also an important factor in the mapping 
out of the streets and wards. It has been generally 
believed that it was at no time other than a very 
small stream, both in regard to its width and volume, 
and this is doubtless true of its later history, when 
buildings began to line its banks, and its channel in 
consequence became narrow and confined ; but recent 
investigations along its course tend to prove that it 
was formerly very much wider and altogether more 
considerable. 

It appears to have formed the western boundary, 

26 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

from the Poultry to Dowgate, of Londinium, the first 
Roman City of London, and in the time of the 
Romans was extra-mural. The best and most 
authentic account of its course is that given by Mr. 
F. W. Reader, whose paper, illustrated by a plan, 
appeared in the Archceological Journal (1903), 1 
being written from the experience of actual excava- 
tions. The Wallbrook was formed by a number of 
small streams flowing from the north-east of London 
and meeting in the neighbourhood of Finsbury, five 
of which, says Mr. William Tite 2 (afterwards Sir 
William) are still in existence as sewers. The main 
stream rose in the district now represented by 
Hoxton, flowing in the direction of Wilson Street, 
and, within the walls, to the east of Finsbury, ran 
through the midst of the City from north to south, 
forming a dividing line between the thirteen eastern 
and eleven western Wards. In the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries the Wallbrook was an important 
waterway. Various derivations have been proposed 
for its name, and as there is always a significance in 
local names — they are never mere arbitrary sounds 
devoid of meaning — it may be well to quote some 
opinions on the point. Mr. J. R. Green, who devotes 
a considerable space in " The Conquest of England " 
(1884), in dealing with London, traces the name 
Walebroc,3 as it is written in ancient deeds, to the 

1 " On Pile Structures in the Wallbrook, near London Wall " 
{Journal of the Archaeological Society, vol. lx. pp. 137-204). 

2 " Descriptive Catalogue of Antiquities found in excavations 
at the New Royal Exchange, 1848," p. 25 et seq. (W. Tite.) 

3 So-called in 11 14-33 (Chron. Ramsey, 248 ; Cartul. de 
Ramseia, i. 139, Rolls Ser.). 

27 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Anglo-Saxon walk, a stranger or foreigner, " from the 
fact that on its navigable channel the trade of the 
foreigner was brought up from the Thames to the very 
heart of the ' chepe,' l or market at the port or hythe 
(commemorated in Barge Yard), fixed by tradition in 
the modern Bucklersbury." That the Wallbrook was 
navigable up to a point not far short of the City wall 
on the north side, is said to have been confirmed by 
the finding of a keel and other parts of a boat in 
digging the foundations of a house at the south-east 
corner of Moorgate Street. 

The Wallbrook was largely used by tanneries and 
other industries where water was requisite ; extensive 
remains of tan-pits having been discovered in the 
neighbourhood of Tokenhouse Yard. 

Probably the earliest mention of the stream is in 
the confirmatory Charter granted by William the 
Conqueror to the Church of St. Martin-le-Grand 
(1068). 2 In the Old English version of this Charter, 
it is described by the word wylrithe, meaning a 
rivulet {rithe) issuing from a spring {wyl), so that it 
was in these early times apparently nameless. The 
vivulus foncium ( =fontium) of the Latin version of the 
Charter is merely a translation of the Old English 

1 Mr. J. E. Price cites entries in the Hustings Roll which 
show clearly that West Cheap (Cheapside), existed as one of 
the markets of London in 1284, that is, twenty-six years before 
the list of wards was compiled under the famous statute known 
from its opening words as " Quia Emptores." (Green, " His- 
tory of the English People," i. 335, 1895.) 

2 The church was of pre-Norman times, founded by one 
Ingelric, in 1056. The full text of the Charter is printed in 
Historical Notices of St. Martin-le-Grand, by A. J. Kemp, 1825 ; 
and by W. H. Stevenson, in Eng. Hist. Rev., 1896. 

28 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

wylrithe. " The River of the Wels," as pointed out 
by Mr. Kingsford, is simply Stow's translation of the 
rivulus foncium of William's Latin Charter. "It is 
not clear," Mr. Kingsford continues, "that the words 
of the Charter are intended to distinguish the rivulus 
foncium near the north corner {aquilonare cornu) of 
the wall from the running water which entered the 
City." Mr. Lethaby l has argued that they were 
identical, and that the Well-brook is Wall Brook 
itself. If there was a brook draining west from the 
Moor, it must either have joined the Fagswell-brook, 
or have run through the site of St. Bartholomew's 
Hospital, which before Rahere's time (twelfth century) 
was but a marsh ; 2 if so, the Well-brook might be the 
stream running through the Hospital to Holborn 
Bridge, which was covered in by licence from 
Edward I. "on account of the too great stench pro- 
ceeding from it." 3 In any case Stow's identification 
of the Well-brook with Turnmill-brook is an unten- 
able conjecture ; the latter was clearly the upper course 
of the Fleet, or that part of the Holebourne which ran 
parallel with Turnmill Street.4 

The Wallbrook in Stow's time had long ceased to 
be "a fair brooke of sweet water," but by continual 
encroachments upon its banks and casting of soilage 
into the stream, it had become, in his own words, 
" worse cloyed and choken than ever before." Mr. 
Loftie suggests that the Wallbrook had at least two 

1 " London before the Conquest," 1902, 45-7. 

2 Cotton MS. Vespasian, bk. ix., f . 7V0. 

3 Morley, " Bartholomew Fair," 70. 

+ Stow's " Survey of London " (text of 1603), edited by C. L. 
Kingsford, 1908 ; notes, pp. 270-1. 

29 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

names, and that as the Dour (Celtic dwr, water, or 
river), it gave the name to Dowgate. 1 

Mr. F. G. Hilton Price, in his address published in 
the London Topographical Record (vol. iii. 1906), 
speaks of an Eastern Branch which " rose near the 
south end of the present New North Road, in the 
direction of the present Pitfield Street, Hoxton, 
thence by Willow Walk across the Curtain Road by 
King John's Court, to Holywell Lane ; after this it 
followed a course east of the whole length of Long 
Alley, then by the old burial-ground of Bethlehem 
Hospital 2 and along Blomfield Street, somewhat to 
the west of All Hallows, London Wall, where it fell 
into the ditch of the City Wall." 

Mr. Reader's plan shows that the Wallbrook came 
up to the Roman Wall along the site of Blomfield 
Street, but was in pre-Roman times very much 
wider than that street. His theory, with which Mr. 
Philip Norman, a well-known authority on London 
archaeology, agrees, is that the Roman Wall greatly 
obstructed the flow of the Wallbrook, the culverts 
made by the Romans through the wall to carry the 
stream being insufficient, and that this caused the 
marshy land of Moorfields, and of the north part 
of the City within the wall, through soakage under 
the wall. FitzStephen, writing towards the end of 
the twelfth century, describes the diversion of skating 
indulged in by the youth of London, " when that vast 

1 " London Afternoons," W. J. Loftie, 1901, chap. iv. 

2 Its origin was the Priory of the Star of Bethlehem, estab- 
lished in the reign of Henry III., and which stood on the east 
side of Moorfields. In the year 1330 the religious house became 
known as a public hospital. 

30 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

fen which waters the walls of the City towards the 
north is hard frozen." The arch of masonry under 
which the Wallbrook entered the City through the 
Wall seems to have been discovered in 1840 or 
1 84 1. The late Mr. Charles Roach Smith, 1 a leading 
authority on Roman London, describes the opening 
thus : " Opposite Finsbury Chambers, 2 at a depth of 

19 feet, what appeared to have been a subterranean 
aqueduct was laid open. It was found to run towards 
Finsbury, under the houses of the Circus for about 

20 feet, and at the termination were iron bars 
fastened into the masonry to prevent the sedge and 
weeds from choking the passage. The arched 
entrance, 3 feet 6 inches in height by 3 feet 3 inches 
in width, had evidently been above-ground, as 
quantities of moss still adhered to the masonry." 

In early Roman times the Wallbrook was a stream 
of considerable width ; records of its measurement 
showing the channel to have been nearly 300 feet 
broad at its mouth, where it joined the Thames, 
narrowing to about 120 feet at Moorfields. Sewerage 
excavations in the streets called Tower Royal and 
St. Thomas Apostle, and also in Cloak Lane, dis- 
covered the channel to be 248 feet wide, filled 
with made-earth and mud, in horizontal layers, and 
containing a quantity of black timber of small 
scantling. The form of the banks could likewise 
be traced, covered with rank grass and weeds. The 

1 Archcvologia, vol. 29, 1842, u Observations on Roman remains 
recently found in London," by C. Roach Smith. 

2 Finsbury Chambers stood at the south-west corner of 
Blomfield Street and London Wall ; the site is now occupied 
by London Wall Buildings, erected 1901-03. 

31 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

digging varied from 18 feet 9 inches to 15 feet 
6 inches in depth, but the bottom of the Wallbrook 
was never reached in those parts, as even in Princes 
Street it is upwards of 30 feet below the present 
surface One of the earliest records of the stream 
being reached is by Maitland, 1 in digging a founda- 
tion for the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street 
in 1732, on the site of the house and garden of 
Sir John Houblon, the first Governor. The same 
historian says the Wallbrook ran above-ground till 
about the middle of the fourteenth century, but the 
covering over of the stream, according to Hughson, 2 
took place about a hundred years later — in 1440 — 
when the Church of St. Margaret Lothbury was 
rebuilt, at which time Robert Large, Mayor in that 
year, contributed to the vaulting over of the 
Wallbrook. It seems, however, that only a part 
of the stream was covered over in the year just 
mentioned, for Stow says : " Order was taken in 
the 2nd of Edward IV. (1462), that such as had 
ground on either side of Wallbrooke, should vault 
and pave it over as far as his ground extended." 
From the top of Dowgate, an open channel existed 
to the Thames as late as 1574, Stow recording 
that the water at this part had " such a swift course 
that in the year 1574 a lad of eighteen years, 
minding to have leapt over the channel, was borne 
down that narrow stream towards the Thames with 
such violent swiftness as no man could rescue or 
stay him." From this it is evident that the stream 
could not have been very wide hereabouts. The 

1 Maitland's " History of London," 1739, p. 507. 

2 Hughson's " History of London," 1806, vol. iii. p. 51. 

32 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

portion of the Wallbrook which traversed the fields 
towards Hoxton continued its course above-ground 
long after that within the city had been covered 
over, as is shown in Ralph Agas's map of London, 1 
wherein it is seen emptying itself into the City 
Ditch just to the east of the Church of All Hallows 
on the Wall. The course of the Roman Wallbrook 
seems to have been generally the same as that which 
it took in mediaeval times. " It is well defined," 
says Mr. Lethaby, " by three churches : St. Mildred, 
Poultry ; St. Stephen (formerly on a different site 
on the west or right bank, whence it was removed 
to the present site in 1429) ; and St. John the 
Baptist, all super Wallbrook." The last-named 
church was destroyed in the Great Fire and not 
rebuilt. A memorial, which stands on the north 
side of Cloak Lane, near the east corner, serves to 
mark its site. St. Margaret Lothbury also stood 
above the Wallbrook on vaults. 

The halls and properties of some of the City com- 
panies were situated along or near the course of the 
Wallbrook, namely those of the Skinners, the Dyers, 
and the Tallow Chandlers on Dowgate Hill, and of 
the Innholders in College Street, formerly called 

1 The commonly accepted date — 1560 — inscribed upon the 
reproductions of the Agas map is manifestly wrong, because 
it shows St. Paul's Cathedral without its spire, which existed 
down to 1561, in which year it was struck down by lightning. 
Mr. W. H. Overall, F.S.A., one of the leading authorities on 
the question, doubts Agas's connection with the map, but thinks 
if he were the originator it could not have been done before 
1591. From internal evidence, "we may take it," says Miss 
Mitton ( u Maps of Old London," 1908), " that the original map 
was made some time in the latter half of Elizabeth's reign, and 
it is probable that it was done by Agas." 

33 C 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Elbow Lane. The Cutlers were in Cloak Lane. 
The direction taken by the Wallbrook after its pas- 
sage through the wall has been found by recent 
investigation to be considerably more to the east 
than was supposed by Mr. J. E. Price, and shown 
in his plan of its course. 1 Taking Mr. Reader's plan 
as a guide, it is there seen that after crossing the 
street^of London Wall, it curved slightly to the 
westward, passed along Little Bell Alley (now 
Copthall Avenue) through Tokenhouse Yard and 
across the churchyard of St. Margaret Lothbury, 
under the church, thence through what is now the 
north-west corner of the Bank of England. Crossing 
Princes Street its course was beneath Grocers' Hall 
and the Church of St. Mildred, Poultry, 2 where at a 
depth of 1 6 feet it ran in Maitland's time {circa 1739) 
"a great and rapid stream." From the Poultry it 
passed to the west of the Stocks' Market (which 
occupied the ground now covered by the Mansion 
House, built 1739-40, ^wed down the present 
Wallbrook Street, crossed Budge Row near its 
eastern end ; then under the present new Cannon 
Street to the west of the Church of St. John by 
Wallbrook. It again wandered westward, nearly as 
far as the Church of St. Michael Paternoster Royal ; 
then it passed eastward under Little College Street, 
south over Thames Street, and thence running between 

* « Roman Antiquities recently discovered on the site of the 
National Safe Deposit Company's premises, Mansion House, 
London." (J. E. Price, 1873.) 

* The ship which formed the vane on the tower of this church 
has been referred to the stream which flowed under it. The 
second church— there were three— was rebuilt on an arch over 
the Wallbrook in 1456. 

34 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

Joiners' Hall Buildings and Friar's Alley it reached 
the Thames at the little port of Dowgate. 

The Wallbrook was spanned by several stone 
bridges, for which special keepers were appointed. 
One was near London Wall, next to the Church of 
All Hallows ; another a little to the south. In the 
year 1300, 28th of Edward I., both these bridges 
were ordered to be repaired, for which the Prior of 
the Holy Trinity within Aldgate, was liable for the 
first, and the Prior of the New Hospital of Our Lady, 
that is, St. Mary Spital without Bishopsgate, for the 
second. In 1291 an inquiry was held as to the 
repair of a bridge near " the tenement of Bokereles- 
bery." Over against the wall of the chancel of the 
Church of St. Stephen was yet another, and Horse- 
shoe Bridge was situate where the brook crossed 
Cloak Lane by the Church of St. John the Baptist. 
Other structures have been brought to light in 
connection with the Wallbrook. Mr. J. E. Price, 
whose name has been already mentioned, published 
in 1873 the results of his observations during the 
building of the National Safe Deposit Company's 
vaults, when a complete section of a portion of the 
ancient watercourse of the Wallbrook was disclosed, 
and also the wooden piling placed along the line of 
the embankment. In the trench excavated for the 
foundations of the massive external walls parallel with 
Charlotte Row, there appeared at a depth of 25 feet 
from the surface-level a timber flooring supported by 
huge oak timbers 12 inches square, and running 
parallel with the stream. This was at the south 
corner, and may have indicated a stage or landing- 
place. At Dowgate Hill, at the outfall of the 

35 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Wallbrook into the Thames, the remains of another 
ancient landing-stage, formed of a Roman-tiled pave- 
ment, set upon timber piles with mortised jointing, 
was discovered in 1884. The stage stood on the left 
bank of the Wallbrook, facing it. 

The writer of a chapter in " Modern London," 
printed for Richard Phillips in 1805, savs t^ at ne saw 
the Wallbrook in November, 1803, "still trickling 
among the foundations of new buildings at the 
Bank." 

The construction of Cannon Street Railway Station, 
opened in 1866, necessitated the excavation of the 
site of the Steel Yard, formerly occupied by merchants 
of the Hanseatic League, whose trade monopolies 
were abolished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
This was found to have been situated on the 
"filling" 1 of the eastern side of the ancient stream, 
near where it emptied itself into the Thames. At 
Barge Yard, during the construction of Queen Victoria 
Street in 187 1, a barge was found buried in the 
mud, still containing the calcined remains of its cargo 
of corn, showing that the barges came up to this 
point to discharge their contents. Recent excavations 
for the building of the Northern Assurance Company 
at the south-west corner of Moorgate Street, dis- 
closed a subsoil of firm Thames ballast, and similar 
ballast was also found under Parr's Bank in Bartho- 
lomew Lane ; but between these two points mud is 
found sometimes to a depth of 30 feet. The dividing 
line of gravel and mud passes through Austin Friars, 
and there are unmistakable indications that the 

1 The word " filling " is here probably used to express an 
embankment of stone, gravel, earth, &c. 

36 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

stream (of Wallbrook) at this point flowed through 
and drained a lagoon, or morass, bounded by Coleman 
Street on the one side and Old Broad Street on the 
other. 1 Thus the Bank of England and the Mansion 
House are both built on the alluvium deposited by 
the Wallbrook. 2 

Writing upon the Ward of Langbourne3 in 1897, 
Mr. W. Sweetland points out that the name is 
written " Langeford "4 in a list of the Wards of 
the City, dated about the year 1285, and contained 
in Letter Book A. He thinks, however, the scribe 
wrote "Langeford" for "Langbourne," especially as 
in the Inquisition in the Hundred Rolls, ten years 

1 The " Buried Rivers of London," a paper read December 
13, 1907, at the Auctioneers' Institute by Mr. J. G. Head, F.A.I. 

2 At the time of the collapse of a portion of the roof of 
Charing Cross Railway Station (December 5, 1905), particulars 
of the geological formation in the vicinity were published in 
the Standard. The alluvial deposits at the bottom of Craven 
Street, close to the wall of the station, are given as follows, the 
information having been obtained from an official of the 
Jermyn Street Museum. The deposits are similar in character 
to those of the Wallbrook described in the text. 

Made ground 

Mud 

Ballast 

Sand 

Total 45 o 

London Clay. 

3 Old Lombard Street, which extended to the north-east 
corner of the Mansion House, where the Stocks' Market stood, 
was known as Langbourne Street for a generation after the 
Lombards were allowed to settle in it in the thirteenth century. 

^ The Ward appears as " Langeburn" in 1293 (Cal. Wills, 
i. 702-3). 

37 



Ft. 


In. 


*9 


O 


IO 


6 


3 


6 


12 






Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

earlier in date, the Ward is twice mentioned by- 
its present name. Mr. Sweetland then quotes 
from Stow, who speaks of the marshy nature of 
the eastern end of the Langbourne Ward, and 
that this fen was the source of the brook, which 
" of old time breaking out in Fenchurch Street, 
ran down the same street and Lombard Street to 
the west end of St. Mary Woolnoth's Church, 
where turning south, and breaking into shares, 
rills, or streams, it left the name of Share-borne 
Lane (Sherborne Lane) or Southborne Lane, as 
I have read, because it ran south to the River 
of Thames." Stow closes his notice by saying that 
the Langbourne had been long since stopped up 
at the head, and the rest of its course filled up 
and paved over, "so that no sign thereof remaineth 
more than the name of it." Such a frank admis- 
sion as this seems to show that the description 
was as traditionary to him as it is at the present 
day. 

The Sharebourne, which Stow connects with the 
Langbourne, is most probably another equally 
mythical stream. Sir William Tite, bringing his 
practical knowledge to bear upon the subject, 
demonstrates that the Langbourne, if it ever 
existed at all as a streamlet, did not run in the 
direction so explicitly described by Stow. It could 
not really have flowed from Fen Court westward 
by way of Lombard Street, for the simple reason 
that the ground "rises upwards of 3 feet from 
Mincing Lane to Gracechurch Street ; and not only 
is the present surface thus elevated, but the 
ancient surface, though it lies 17 feet below, has 

38 



Wallbrook and Parts of the City Adjacent 

the same inclination. In excavating for sewers in 
Gracechurch Street, though the traces of the 
Langbourne were carefully sought for, no indications 
could be found of a stream having crossed it. As, 
however, there doubtless existed some foundation 
for the tradition of the reported course of the 
Langbourne, it may perhaps be regarded as having 
been an ancient artificial trench, all traces of the 
real direction of which were effaced at some very 
early period in the history of the metropolis." The 
testimony of ancient documents tends to support 
the views of most modern writers in this connec- 
tion. In the Calendar of Letter Books in the 
Guildhall Library, ranging from the twelfth to the 
sixteenth centuries, the name Langbourne is 
frequently met with, but invariably with reference 
to the Ward, not to the Stream. 

Like the " Langborne," the " Shareborne" rests 
solely on Stow's conjectural etymology. The name 
first occurs (as noticed by Mr. Lethaby in " London 
before the Conquest") in 1272 as " Shittebornelane," 
and so continues for two centuries with variations 
like " Schiteborou lane," and " Shiteburgh lane" 
(Watney, " Account of St. Thomas Aeon," 289 ; Cal. 
Wills, 1, 13, 162, 171, 220). "Shirborne lane" 
appears in 1467, and "Sherborne Lane" in 1556 
(id. ii. 586, 666). 1 

1 Kingsford's edition of Stow's " Survey," vol. ii. ; notes, p. 307. 



39 



CHAPTER II 

THE HOLEBOURNE (OR FLEET), TYBOURNE, 
WESTBOURNE, AND SERPENTINE 

Fleet River — Ditch — Bridge — Turnmill Brook — River of Wells 
— Holebourne (or Fleet) : its source and direction traced — 
Blemund's Ditch — Tybourne Brook : its course described — 
Marylebone Lane twice crossed by it — Formed a delta at 
Thorney Island, Westminster — Kilburn Stream, an affluent 
of the Westbourne — Aye or Eye Brook — Eia Estate — Bays- 
water Brook, a name applied to the Westbourne — Course 
of the stream defined — Serpentine : formed at the instigation 
of Queen Caroline — Old maps of Middlesex. 

OUTSIDE the walls of the City, in what are 
now the western suburbs, were three great 
brooks ; the Hole-bourne, the Ty-bourne, and the 
West-bourne, all issuing from the uplands of 
Hampstead and Highgate. Of these, the most 
important to the citizens of London was the Hole- 
bourne l (whence Holborn), expressing the burn in 
the hollow or ravine. One writer, Mr. J. G. Waller, 
points out that the holes that gave the Saxon 

1 The Oldborne or Hilbourne, of Stow, but, as pointed out by 
Mr. Kingsford, if Oldborne were correct the original form would 
be Ealdborne. In early documents it is always Holeburne or 
Holeborne. Holeburne, the stream, occurs in Domesday, i. 127, 
and in a Charter of Henry II. (Mon. Ang. iv. 85) and Holeburne 
Strate in 125 1 (Hist. MSS. Comm., 9th Rep. 3). 

40 




w 


13 















w 


y 


a 


o 


H 


U 



The Holebourne (or Fleet) 

name to the Holebourne are still marked by the 
sites of Hockley-in-the-Hole, now Ray Street, 
Clerkenwell — and Black Mary's Hole, Bagnigge 
Wells. A part of the depression here suggested 
is particularly noticeable near Farringdon Station, 
on the Metropolitan Railway, which, in fact, runs 
in places in the old bed of the stream, and also 
in Farringdon Street, where, with the side-streets 
rising on either hand, one can imagine how it had 
eroded its channel between the high banks on its 
way to the River Thames. 

In its lower course the Holebourne went by the 
name of the Fleet, 1 by which it was best known to 
Londoners. Like the Wallbrook, it was navigable 
for small ships and barges for a short distance above 
its mouth. The names of Seacole Lane and New- 
castle Lane bear witness to the fact of its navigability, 
and when De Keyser's Hotel was rebuilt in 1871 the 
timber camp-sheeting of old Bridewell Dock was 
found beneath the foundations. Early in the twelfth 
century the district beyond the Fleet is called ultra 
Fletam. 2 Henry II. gave to the Templars a site for 
a Mill super Fletam juxta Castelum Bainard, which 

x A fleet is either that which is afloat, or a place where vessels 
can float (from the Anglo-Saxon verb fleotan, to float or swim), 
or where water fleets or runs. Hence the names Ebbfleet, 
Northfleet, Portfleet, &c. The word vlei, which the Boers of the 
Cape use for the smaller rivers, is the same word fleet (Dutch, 
vliet), in a somewhat disguised form. (" Words and Places," 
Isaac Taylor, 1885, p. 184). 

The natural feature to which we give the name of "fleet" 
may be studied in the Thames, especially at Purfleet and 
Winnington, the latter occupying a bend of the river remark- 
ably similar to that at Westminster. 

a Calendar of St. Paul's MSS. 

41 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

was removed in the reign of Edward I., on the com- 
plaint of Henry Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, that it 
had lessened the width and depth of water under 
Holebourne Bridge and Fleet Bridge. The Earl's 
petition is interesting, as it refers to a time when ten 
or twelve "navies" (ships), with merchandise, "were 
wont to come to Flete Bridge, and some of them to 
Holeburne Bridge." The result of the petition was 
that the creek was cleaned, the mills, which had 
caused a diversion of the water, removed, and other 
means taken for the preservation of the course. But 
still, as if destined to be a common sewer, it was soon 
choked with filth again, and the scouring of the 
muddy stream, which seems to have silted up about 
every thirty or forty years, was a continual expense 
to the City of London. On account of this it has 
been humorously but aptly described as a sort of dirty 
and troublesome child to the Corporation. 

Lord Chesterfield was once asked by a patriotic but 
untravelled Parisian whether London could show a 
river like the Seine. " Yes," replied his lordship, 
" we call it Fleet Ditch." 

The name of Turnmill Brook, given to the Fleet 
north of Fleet Bridge, was one which it justified till a 
comparatively recent period, as after the middle of the 
eighteenth century it gave motion to flour and flatting 
mills at the back of Field Lane, near Holborn. Turn- 
mill Street, which runs from the west end of Clerken- 
well Green to Cow Cross Street, now marks the 
course of the stream in the valley by Farringdon 
Road. In the reign of Henry IV. it is mentioned as 
Trylmyl Strete, in which some persons are empowered 
to mend a stone bridge over the river Fleet. Falstaff, 

42 



The Holebourne (or Fleet) 

in summing up the character of Justice Shallow 
alludes to it as Turnbull Street, another of its varia- 
tions ; and it is marked in Agas's map as Turmer 
Street. 

This river has now been spoken of under three 
different names ; of these the Holebourne, or Hol- 
burne, seems to be the most ancient, and under that 
title it occurs in Domesday Book, thus : " Two 
cottagers belonging to Holburne paid twenty pence 
a year to the Kings Sheriff." By Stow, and others 
after him, it has been called the River of Wells, but 
neither in the Parliament Rolls, nor in the Patent 
Rolls of 1307 (Edward I.) does it appear in this form, 
although Stow cites these documents as containing 
the name. The first speaks of " the watercourse of 
Fleet running under the bridge of Holburn," and the 
second calls it "the Fleet River from Holburn Bridge 
to the Thames." 1 Mr. Stevenson 2 believes the 
" rivulus foncium " of the Conqueror's Charter, quoted 
above, to be the true origin of the " River of Wells." 
Pennant was of the same opinion, as he states that 
the River of Wells or Wall-brook is mentioned in a 
Charter of William the Conqueror to the College of 
St. Martin-le-Grand. 

The tradition that Holborn is so named after a 
brook — the Old Bourne 3 — supposed to have risen on 
the hill, a little to the west of Brooke Street, about 
where Holborn Bars stood, and to have flowed in an 
easterly direction into the Fleet River, cannot be 

1 " London Before the Conquest," W. R. Lethaby, 1902. 

2 English Historical Review, 1896. 

3 "The Fascination of London" — Holborn and Bloomsbury, 
Besant, 1903. 

43 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

sustained by any evidence or any traces of the bed of 
a former stream, although Stow speaks positively as 
to its existence, but which, he says, had long been 
stopped up. One writer marks the course of this 
affluent on a plan of the district as it is supposed to 
have appeared in the twelfth century. 1 It is here seen 
to rise in Blois Pond, in the Portpoole Manor Estate (of 
which Portpool Lane, turning out of Gray's Inn Road, 
is a reminiscence), crossing Holborn a little to the 
west of the Bars, and running under the walls of the 
Earl of Lincoln's house, and of Essex House, empty- 
ing itself into the Fleet at the south-west corner of 
Holborn Bridge. The fact that in the early history 
of Bloomsbury great ditches and fosses cut up the 
ground, the most considerable being Blemund's Ditch, 
supposed to have been an ancient line of fortification, 
dividing the parish of St. Giles from that of Blooms- 
bury, may account for Stow's acceptance of the tradi- 
tion. Roland Dobie, who wrote a history of the two 
parishes in 1829, merely quotes what Stow says as to 
the existence of a brook, but makes no comment. 

The main source of the Fleet River was a stream 
fed by springs issuing from the higher parts of 
Hampstead Heath, and which extended from Flask 
Walk, down a rather deep valley (since filled up), by 
what is now known as Willow Road, to South End 
Green and the Kentish Town Fields. Other sources 
were near, but this was the principal source of the 
Holebourne, or Fleet River. This stream was joined 
by a smaller one from the eastern side of the Heath 
near where the railway station now is — and still 
further east ran the streamlet from the Ken (or Caen) 
1 " A Chronicle of Blemundsbury," W. Blott, 1892. 
44 



The Holebourne (or Fleet) 

Wood Springs, joining the Fleet Brook by the 
present Kentish Town Road. 1 

It thus took its rise, says Mr. J. G. Waller, 2 from 
two distinct sources : the western arm from Hamp- 
stead Ponds, and the eastern from Hiodicrate Ponds 
(which are linked together by underground pipes). 
Continuing from his description, these two arms 
formed a junction at Hawley Road, a little above the 
Regent's Canal. Keeping a nearly due southerly 
direction, and following the windings of King's Road 
and Pancras Road in Camden Town, the rivulet 
flowed on towards Battle Bridge. It then passed 
between Gray's Inn Road and Bagnigge Wells Road 
(King's Cross Road), where it made a formidable 
wash. Turning towards Clerkenwell Green, it passed 
the western side of what is now the Parcels Post 
Depot, once the House of Correction, where it was 
joined by another stream rising near Russell Square, 
and its course then lay beneath Ray Street, until it 
reached Farringdon Road, and thence, with few bend- 
ings, to Holborn Bridge by Farringdon Street, where 
it ran between high banks which, as it neared its 
outfall, gradually fell away, until it joined the Thames 
through the low-lying ground, now called Whitefriars, 
at a spot on the west side of the present Blackfriars 
Bridge. In George II.'s reign the Fleet Ditch — it 
was so called as early as the reign of Edward 1.3 — 

1 " Hampstead Wells," G. W. Potter, 1904, pp. 3, 4. 

2 J. G. Waller, Trans. London and Middlesex Arch. Soc., 
vol. vi., 1875. 

3 In an Inquisition held by the Mayor and Sheriffs of 
London — Edward I. 1277-8 — as to property belonging to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury near the Flete Ditch. 

45 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

had become so intolerable by pollution that it had to 
be covered up out of sight, and was finally degraded 
to the purpose of a sewer. In July, 1840, Mr. 
Anthony Crosby accomplished the somewhat hazar- 
dous feat of exploring the noisome stream, while 
collecting materials for a graphic history of the Fleet 
River, but which unfortunately he did not live to 
finish. His drawings and manuscripts were pur- 
chased for the London Library. " There still 
remain," writes Palmer (about 1870) "a few yards 
visible in the parish (of Pancras) where the brook 
runs in its native state. At the back of the Grove in 
Kentish Town Road, is a rill of water, one of the 
little arms of the Fleet, which is yet clear and 
untainted." 

The name of the smallest of the three brooks — the 
Tybourne — is made up of pure Saxon elements. In 
the Charter of King Eadgar, anno 951 l (which was 
a confirmatory grant of land to the Collegiate Church 
of St. Peter at Westminster), it is written Teo-burna. 
The termination burna (bourne or brook), is well 
known, but the prefix teo Mr. Waller finds not so 
easy to determine. However, the name of the brook 
being evidently suggested by its movements at this 
part of its course ; whether teo means a duplication, 
as in "two " or " tie," or the alternative, an enclosure, 
in allusion to its two arms forming a delta enclosing 

1 The date of this Charter is at least six years before King 
Eadgar ascended the throne, according to the Saxon Chronicle, 
and ten years before Dunstan, who is called in it Archbishop, 
came to the See of Canterbury. Other anachronisms have been 
pointed out in this Charter, which have led to its being con- 
sidered as the fabrication of the monks. (Dugdale's Mon. 
Angl., vol. i. p. 266.) 

46 



The Tybourne 

the ancient Thorney Island ; either of these inter- 
pretations would appear to be equally applicable. 

The Tybourne took its rise at the southern side of 
Hampstead, in fields known as "Shepherds" or 
" Conduit fields," from a conduit which covered the 
spring. The spring was drained off early in the 
eighteen hundred and eighties by the tunnel which 
passes close by, through which the Hampstead (North 
London) Railway is carried. Following the line of 
Fitzjohn's Avenue to Belsize, the stream then skirted 
the west side of Regent's Park. Its course from here 
to Oxford Street is not marked on any known map ; 
a portion of it only is seen on one by William Faden 
(1785), in which it is shown as taking a sweep west- 
wards, bending round again to the east, and up to the 
then stables of the Horse Guards, near the site of 
Baker Street Bazaar. From here it may be faintly 
traced towards Marylebone Lane, which it crossed 
twice, when it becomes again visible in the maps of 
Lea and Glynne (1777) and others. Crossing Oxford 
Street l near Stratford Place, it made its way by 
Lower Brook Street and the foot of Hay Hill (pos- 
sibly so called from a farm in the neighbourhood), 
through Lansdowne Gardens, down Half Moon 
Street and the hollow of Piccadilly, by a diagonal line 
to the Green Park, through which it flowed to the 
front of Buckingham House, where it was covered 
in from view. It then pursued its course down what 
are now St. James Street, Orchard Street, and 

1 The maps of Morden and Lea, dated 1690 and 1700, show 
that the highway now called Oxford Street crossed by a bridge 
the stream which in them is nameless, but in later plans is 
variously called Aye Brook or Tybourne. 

47 






Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

College Street, by the walls of the monastery of 
Westminster, until it fell into the Thames. The 
other branch of the Tybourne, from the front of 
Buckingham Palace, swept westwards, forming the 
ancient boundary of the City of Westminster, crossing 
Vauxhall Bridge Road and Grosvenor Road and 
falling into the Thames. 

In the later plans and maps the Tybourne is 
variously called Aye Brook or Eye Brook, 1 from the 
ancient estate of Eia, nearly 900 acres in extent, 
which reached from the Bayswater Road to the 
Thames : in the survey by Morden and Lea {temp. 
William and Mary) it is marked "A Brooke," and in 
" Leland's Itinerary" (1770) " Mariburne Brook." 

As a proof of its continued existence, it may be 
mentioned that in Oxford Street it was tapped by the 
engineers of the Central London Railway, familiarly 
known as the "Twopenny Tube" (opened in 1900), 
causing much delay in their work. To the proximity 
of the same stream, St. Cyprian's Church, Glentworth 
Street, Dorset Square, owes the great depth of its 
foundations. 

The Westbourne was probably larger than the 
Holebourne ; it is marked "Bayswater Brook" in 
Greenwood's map of 1824-7. Some of its tributary 
springs were close to those of the Tybourne, so that, 
as pointed out by Mr. Waller, a little difference in the 
levels would have made the latter merely a tributary. 
The farthest of its sources of supply was formerly 
marked by a small pond on the south-western side of 

1 In the Crace Collection there is a plan of Stratford Place, 
showing Ayre (sic) brook before it was covered in. (Cat., p. 100, 
No. 25.) 

48 



The Westbourne 

Hampstead Heath. The next was within the village, 
near Frognal Estate, with an arch over it. The main 
stream flowed westward through meadows towards 
the Great North Road, receiving a small affluent, 
the Kilburn. Leaving the nunnery of that name, 
it crossed the Edgware Road beneath an ancient 
thirteenth-century bridge, into low-lying meadows, 
receiving another affluent from Willesden Lane. It 
then flowed for some distance in a direct though 
sinuous course, when it bent almost at right angles, 
and following the trend of the present Cambridge and 
Shirland Roads, passed under the Grand Junction 
Canal. From here it proceeded parallel with the 
Edgware Road, through the once rural Westbourne 
Green, a part of which was almost on the spot where 
Royal Oak Station now is, and passed Craven Hill l 
on the west, where formerly stood the Pest House, 
marked so prominently on Rocque's map. It then 
formed the main body of the water of the Serpentine. 
A few words as to the formation of this fine sheet 
of water. It is probably known only to the few that 
it was at the instigation of Queen Caroline, Consort 
of George II., that the Westbourne, or rather the 
pools in its bed, of which there were eleven alto- 
gether, was dammed up and converted into a lake of 
some 40 acres (not 50, as generally reputed), about 
7 furlongs in length by about 200 yards in width 
towards the eastern or Knightsbridge end. It was 
named, not very appropriately, the Serpentine River, 
though the outline 170 years ago may have presented 
more frequent and serpent-like windings than are now 

1 One of the places occupied by the citizens of London 
during the Plague. 

49 D 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

seen in its course. The making of it — a work of 
some magnitude — is described very fully by Mr. 
W. L. Rutton in the Home Counties Magazine for 
1903, who goes into all the minutiae of the charges 
and expenses incurred in the work. 1 In Rocque's 
map (1746) the Serpentine is called the New River. 
The Westbourne continued to supply the Serpentine 
up to 1834, when it was cut off, the water having 
become too impure for feeding it, owing to the drains 
of the houses finding their way into the stream. 
Emerging at the lower end of the Serpentine, at the 
cascade not far from Hyde Park Corner, the West- 
bourne was crossed at Knightsbridge by a stone 
bridge, 2 the situation of which was between Knights- 
bridge Terrace and the house occupied as the French 
Embassy, and a part of it existed in 1857 under the 
road at Albert Gate. Crossing the Great Western 
Road, it passed along in a line parallel with Sloane 
Street, behind the east side of Lowndes Square and 
Cadogan Square — a district named, up to 1825, the 
Five Fields, on which were a few market gardens. 
In R. Horwood's plan of London (1799) it is shown 
in these parts dividing Chelsea parish from St. 
George's parish. Bending to the right, the stream 
passed under Grosvenor Bridge, where it divided 
and emptied itself into the Thames near Ranelagh 
Gardens by two mouths. The eastern course was 
stopped up when Grosvenor Canal was formed, the 

1 "The Making of the Serpentine," W. L. Rutton, Home 
Counties Magazine, vol. v., 1903. 

2 Walford, in "Old and New London," vol. iv., ed. 1902, 
reproduces a drawing of the outfall of the Serpentine at Knights- 
bridge in 1880, from the Crace Collection. 

50 



The Westbourne 

head of which, forming a large basin, is now entirely 
covered by the Victoria Railway Station. The 
western mouth is the entrance to the Ranelagh 
Sewer, into which the stream had for many years 
degenerated. By 1856-7 the whole of its course 
was covered in, although part of it was open so 
late as 1854. The Westbourne was occasionally a 
cause of annoyance to the inhabitants of Knights- 
bridge through its overflowings after heavy rains ; 
notably in 1768, when it did great damage, under- 
mining the foundations of some of the neighbouring 
houses. 1 

The stream (or sewer) of the Westbourne is carried 
in a large conduit over the District Railway at Sloane 
Square Station. 

The old maps of Middlesex, e.g., those of Norden, 
1593; Speed, 1 6 10, which was an augmentation of 
Norden; Seller, 17 10; Morden, 1730; and Rocque, 
1 74 1-5, show but two streams — the Holebourne and 
the Westbourne. The Tybourne, probably from its 
being of less volume, is not figured, although it was 
important at an early period, as from its springs 
a supply of water was conducted to London. 

Robins, in " Paddington, Past and Present" (1853), 
contends that the names Tybourne and Westbourne 
were given to the same brook — an opinion opposed to 
those of all others who have studied the question. 
It cannot be denied that Mr. Robins has laboured 
hard to prove his case, and that his arguments in 
support of it carry some weight. In the endeavour 
to show that the two streams were really one and the 

1 " Memorials of the Hamlet of Knightsbridge," by H. G. 
Davis, 1859, pp.. 20, 21. 

51 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

same, he refers to an Act of Parliament so late as 
1734, 1 in which "two messuages and six acres of 
land lying in the common Fields of Westbourn, in 
the said parish of Paddington," and three other acres 
in the same fields, are described as being " parcel of 
the manor of Tyburn, and called Byard's Watering 
Place." The Serpentine he takes to have been first 
called Tybourn, then Westbourn, then Ranelagh 
Sewer ; while the stream which crossed Oxford 
Street, west of Stratford Place, first bore the name 
of Eyebourn, then Tybourn, then King's Scholars 
Pond Sewer. The only vestige of the Westbourne 
now remaining is to be seen at the southern extremity 
of St. Luke's parish, Chelsea, where, having become 
a mere sewer, it empties itself into the Thames about 
300 yards above Chelsea Bridge. 

1 7 Geo. II., cap. xi. 



52 



CHAPTER III 

HOLY WELLS AND WELL-WORSHIP 

Holy wells — Enactments against offerings at springs in Saxon 
times — Survival of superstitions relating to them — Flower- 
dressing of wells : a custom still observed at Tissington 
in Derbyshire — Offerings of coins — Holy wells in London. 

THE earliest historian of London — William Fitz- 
Stephen 1 — writing towards the end of the 
twelfth century, presents us with a vision of London 
as he saw it, and speaks enthusiastically of the 
cornfields, pastures, and delightful meadows in the 
northern suburbs, and of certain excellent springs 
which rose at a short distance from the City, men- 
tioning in particular Holy Well, Clerks' Well, and 
Clement's Well ("fons sacer, fons clericorum, and fons 
Clementis "), then much frequented by scholars and 
City youths in their walks on summer evenings. Stow 
says that in his time — Elizabeth to James I. — 

1 His graphic description of London in the twelfth century 
forms the preface to his most important work, "Vita Sancta 
Thomae," and is entitled " Descriptio Nobilissimae civitatis 
Londoniae." It was written between the years 1180 and 1182. 
Printed in Stow's " Survey of London," in " Leland's Itinerary," 
published by Hearne, third edition, 1770, and by Dr. Pegge 
in 1772. It also occurs in the " Liber Custumarum," vol. ii., 
Part I. (Guildhall Library). 

53 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

every street and lane had " divers fayre welles and 
springes," which served the City with " sweet and fresh 
water." To name a few of these : there were wells 
of drinking water in Broad Street, at Aldgate, at St. 
Antholin's Church, Watling Street, at St. Paul's 
Churchyard, at the Grey Friar's, at Aldersgate, and in 
many private houses. But since Stow's " Survey " 
was completed, many destructive agencies have been 
at work, particularly the Great Fire of 1666, which 
wrought such fearful havoc in London, about five- 
sixths of which was laid waste ; so that any well or 
fountain within its range was choked, and afterwards 
built over and forgotten. Those specified by Fitz- 
Stephen, however, lay beyond the devastated area, 
and thus escaped destruction, and their sites can even 
now be pretty closely identified. 

Before proceeding with the detailed descriptions, 
there is one feature in connection with streams and 
wells which cannot be altogether ignored, and that 
is the prominent place they held in former times 
among nature-religions. There is an extensive litera- 
ture dealing with the folklore of holy wells and 
streams, the subject having of late years met with 
increasing recognition from students of anthropology 
and of comparative religions ; but this is not the place 
for an examination into such a wide field of research ; 
and so the reader need only to be reminded here of 
the theory of the descent of the churches from the holy 
stones (circles, dolmens, cromlechs, menhirs, &c.) 
which they replaced, and of the close association of 
wells with these sacred erections. A few points may, 
however, be touched upon relative to this fascinating 
subject. There are instances of wells near stone 

54 



Holy Wells and Well-worship 

circles in Cornwall, Aberdeenshire, in County Kerry, 
and in the Isle of Man. The number of holy wells 
and streams in Britain is legion. Mr. Gomme says I 
that well-worship prevailed in every county of the 
three kingdoms. 

It seems now to be generally accepted that well- 
worship in Britain originated long before the Christian 
era ; that the Christian missionaries found it in vogue 
on their arrival, and tolerated it at first, and utilised it 
afterwards for their own ends. 2 But in the times of 
transition from paganism to Christianity the higher 
Christian authorities made protest against the old 
worship, passing laws to forbid adoration and sacrifice 
to fountains — as when Duke Bretislav forbade the 
still half-pagan country-folk of Bohemia to offer 
libations and sacrifice victims at springs, and in 
England there were prohibitions by the Saxon clergy, 
and Ecgberht's Pcenitentiale proscribes the like rites : 
" If any man vow or bring his offering to any well" — 
"If one holds his vigils at any well." 3 But the old 
veneration was too strong to be put down, and with a 
veneer of Christianity, and the substitution of a Saint's 
name, water-worship has held its own to our day. To 
prove this, it is only necessary to say that in remote 
country places there are to be found, even now, 
persons who openly avow their belief in the miraculous 
properties of holy wells, although one would suppose 
that in these enlightened times such superstition could 
hardly exist. Yet as a proof of the persistence of a 

1 " Etymology in Folklore," 1892. 

8 "Stonehenge and other British Stone Monuments," Sir 
Norman Lockyer, 1906. 
3 " Primitive Culture," E. B. Tylor, 1871. 

55 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

deeply rooted belief, there are wells in some parts of 
Cornwall, for instance, which are popularly supposed 
to possess supernatural powers over their votaries. 1 

Streams, rivers, fountains, springs, and wells have 
all been accounted holy, 2 and possessed each its 
nymph or its god, who exacted sacrifice or offering of 
some kind. Wells were sometimes dressed with 
flowers, as at the village of Tissington, near Ash- 
bourne, in Derbyshire, where the custom of garland- 
dressing of the well is still observed on every anni- 
versary of the Ascension. At a well still called Bede's 
Well, near Jarrow, Northumberland, as late as 1740, 
a custom prevailed to bring children troubled with 
any disease or infirmity. In the south (Teutonic 
England) an example is found where some details 
of local ritual are still preserved. This is at Bon- 
church in the Isle of Wight, where on St. Boniface's 
Day, June 5th, the well is decorated with flowers. 3 

In other cases wells were resorted to for the pur- 
pose of obtaining change of weather, or good luck, 
and to effect this offerings were made to them to pro- 
pitiate their guardian gods and nymphs. Coins have 
been found by the hundred in wells into which they 
were thrown in order to read an oracle from the 
troubling of the waters : there were superstitions about 
water drawn on certain nights ; there were wishing 
wells, and there were wakes of the well. 



* " Miraculous Wells, " C. N. Bennett — Good Words, Septem- 
ber, 1905. 

2 The earliest holy well known to history is the famous well at 
Heliopolis, where Ra used to wash himself, and Piankhi, B.C. 
740, went and washed his face in it. 

3 " Tour in the Isle of Wight," Chas. Tomkins, 1796, II. 121. 

56 



Holy Wells and Well-worship 

Many of the ancient holy wells were frequented by 
people with skin diseases or suffering from complaints 
of the eyes. This arose in many cases from their 
chalybeate water — known, but not understood. " I 
have found," says Mr. T. W. Shore, "sesquioxide 
(now called ferric oxide) of iron, a common ingredient 
in holy wells, now frequented by people for the 
purpose of washing mangy dogs ; so greatly has the 
character of many of these ancient holy wells fallen 
from their former reputation." x 

That some among the historic wells in and around 
London were deemed sacred is evidenced by their 
dedication to Saints of the early Christian faith, as 
well as from their close proximity to churches, e.g., 
those of St. Bride and St. Clement in the west, 
Clerks' Well (or Clerkenwell) north of the City, 
near which was the priory church of St. John of 
Jerusalem ; while eastward was the Holy Well, 
Shoreditch, near the ancient Priory of Halliwell 
(or Holywell). Some of the outlying districts of 
the metropolis, such as Muswell Hill, Tottenham 
(St. Eloy), and Ladywell, also had their holy wells. 

Having their existence near some abbey, monas- 
tery, or religious house, the holy wells often formed, 
by the attraction of real or fancied virtues, no 
trifling addition to the revenues of the pious dwellers 
in those sacred edifices. 

1 "The Anglo-Saxon Settlement round London," &c., by 
T. W. Shore, Trans. London and Middlesex Arch. Soc, 
vol. i., 1905. 



57 



CHAPTER IV 

CENTRAL LONDON GROUP OF WELLS AND SPAS 

St. Bride's Well — Milton's lodgings in the churchyard — 
Clement's Well — Stow's evidence as to its position and 
identification — Allusions to it by later writers — Evidence of 
the Ordnance Survey maps — Holy Well, Strand — Remarks 
of various observers regarding its true position — Gray's Inn 
Lane — Bagnigge House and Wells — Origin of the name — 
Nell Gwynne at Bagnigge House — Properties of the water 
—Battle Bridge— Black Mary's Hole— St. Chad's Well : its 
many vicissitudes — Pancras Wells and garden — Visit of 
Pepys thereto — Holt Waters — Sadler's Music House and 
Wells — Sadler succeeded by Miles and Forcer — The Theatre 
and notable performers — It sinks to a low-type music- 
hall — Islington Spa, or New Tunbridge Wells — At one 
time a fashionable resort — The proprietor's house — Rose- 
bery Avenue — London Spaw — New Wells near the latter — 
Priory of St. John of Jerusalem — Clerks' Well — Miracle or 
Mystery Plays performed there — St. Mary's Nunnery, Clerk- 
enwell — Hockley in the Hole — Skinners' Well — Fagswell 
— Godewell — Loder's Well — Radwell — Crowder's Well — 
— Monkswell — St. Agnes le Clere — Well or pool — Mineral 
Baths — Perilous Pond, later called Peerless Pool — Swim- 
ming-bath and fishing-pond — Swimming-bath survived to 
nineteenth century. 

ON the right bank of the Fleet, close to its 
outfall into the Thames, stood a large castel- 
lated building, half fortress, half palace, called 
Bridewell, in which, from the reign of Henry III., 

58 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

if not of John, the sovereigns of this realm were 
lodged and kept their Courts. There are few parti- 
culars of the spot on which it stood, but like the 
neighbouring Savoy, it was probably foreshore, 
which, under the riparian laws, belonged to the 
Crown. Stow says : " This house of St. Bride's, 
of later time, being left, and not used by the Kings, 
fell to ruin, . . . only a fayre well remained 
here." l The palace, 2 described as a stately and 
beautiful house, was rebuilt by Henry VIII., for 
the reception and accommodation of the Emperor 
Charles V. and his retinue, when he visited England 
for the second time in 1522. In 1553 Edward VI. 
gave it over to the City of London, to be used 
as a workhouse for the poor, and a house of cor- 
rection " for the strumpet and idle person, for the 
rioter that consumeth all, and for the vagabond 
that will abide in no place." The old palace was 
burnt down in the Great Fire. Many views of it 
are extant as it appeared previous to its destruc- 
tion. The well was near the church dedicated to 
St. Bridget (of which Bride is a corruption ; a 
Scottish or Irish saint who flourished in the 
sixth century), and was one of the holy wells or 
springs so numerous in London, the waters of 
which were supposed to possess peculiar virtues if 
taken at particular times. Whether the Well of 
St. Bride was so called after the church, or whether, 
being already there, it gave its name to it, is 
uncertain, more especially as the date of the 

1 Strype's Edition of Stow, 1720. 

2 The whole 3rd Act of Shakespeare's play of " Henry VIII." 
is laid in the Palace of Bridewell. 

59 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

erection of the first church of St. Bride is not 
known and no mention of it has been discovered 
prior to the year 1222. The position of the ancient 
well is stated to have been identical with that of 
the pump in a niche in the eastern wall of the church- 
yard overhanging Bride Lane. William Hone, in his 
" Every- Day Book" for 1 831, thus relates how the 
well became exhausted : " The last public use of 
the water of St. Bride's well drained it so much 
that the inhabitants of the parish could not get 
their usual supply. This exhaustion was caused 
by a sudden demand on the occasion of King 
George IV. being crowned at Westminster in July, 
1 82 1. Mr. Walker, of the Hotel, No. 10 Bridge 
Street, Blackfriars, engaged a number of men in 
filling thousands of bottles with the sanctified fluid 
from the cast-iron pump over St. Bride's Well, 
in Bride Lane." Beyond this there is little else 
to tell about the well itself, but the spot is hal- 
lowed by the memory of the poet Milton, who, 
as his nephew, Edward Philips, 1 records, lodged 
in the churchyard on his return from Italy, about 
August, 1640, "at the house of one Russel a taylor." 
The house itself was a small tenement, which was 
burnt down in 1824 : the back part of the old 
office of Punch occupied its site. 

There were at least two wells of importance in 
the near neighbourhood of St. Clement Danes 
Church, in the Strand. The earliest mention of 
the well of St. Clement was made by the Anglo- 
Norman chronicler, FitzStephen, in his " History of 

x " Life of Milton," by Edward Philips, 1694, p. 16. 
60 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

London," prefixed to his Life of Becket (written 
between the years 1180 and 1182), where in the 
oft-quoted passage, he describes the water as 
"sweete, wholesome, and cleere," and the spot as 
being "much frequented by scholars and youths of 
the Citie in summer evenings, when they walk 
forth to take the aire." 

Turning to Stow (1598), a fairly correct idea of the 
position of the holy well may be formed from his 
remarks. Referring to Clement's Inn, he defines it as 
" an Inne of Chancerie, so called because it standeth 
near St. Clement's Church, but nearer to the faire 
fountain called Clement's Well." As to its condition 
at the time he wrote, he says : " It is yet faire and 
curbed square with hard stone, and is always kept 
clean for common use. It is always full and never 
wanteth water." Seymour writes of it in his " Survey 
of London" (1734-35) as "St. Clement's pump, or 
well, of note for its excellent spring water." Maitland 
(1756) says of it: "The well is now covered, and a 
pump placed therein on the east side of Clement's Inn 
and lower end of St. Clement's Lane." This appears 
to be the first specific reference to the change from a 
draw-well to a pump. Hughson (1806-09), and 
Allen (1827-29) both allude briefly to the well, but 
the following authors say nothing about it : Northouck 
"A New History of London" (1773); Pennant, 
"Some Account of London" (1790 and 1793); 
Malcolm, " Londinium Redivivum " (1803-07); and 
Riley, " Memorials of London and London Life in 
the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries " 
(1868). 

Among the more modern writers, John Sanders in 

61 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

his " Strand" article, published in Knight's " London" 
(1842), says : " The well is now covered with a pump, 
but there still remains the spring, flowing as steadily 
and freshly as ever." 

George Emerson (1862), in speaking of the Church, 
says: "It stood near a celebrated well, which for 
centuries was a favourite resort for Londoners. The 
water was slightly medicinal, and having effected 
some cures, the name Holy Well was applied." 

John Diprose, an old inhabitant of the parish of St. 
Clement Danes, in his account of the parish (published 
in two volumes in 1868 and 1876), has this passage 
on the subject : " It has been suggested that the 
Holy Well was situated on the side of the Churchyard 
(of St. Clement), facing Temple Bar, for here may be 
seen a stone-built house, looking like a burial vault 
above ground, which an inscription informs us was 
erected in 1839, to prevent people using a pump that 
the inhabitants had put up in 1807 over a remarkable 
well, which is 191 feet deep, with 150 feet of water in 
it. Perhaps this may be the ' holy well ' of bygone 
days, that gave the name to a street adjoining." 
Timbs says in his "Curiosities of London" (1853), 
" the holy well is stated to be that under the ' Old 
Dog' tavern, No. 24, Holywell Street." Mr. Parry, 
an optician in that street, and an old inhabitant, held 
the same opinion. Mr. Diprose, on the other hand, 
finds " upon examination, no reason for supposing 
that the holy well was under the ' Old Dog ' tavern, 
there being much older wells near the spot." Other 
inhabitants believe that the ancient well was adjacent 
to Lyon's Inn, which faced Newcastle Street, 
between Wych Street and Holywell Street. In the 

62 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

Times of May i, 1874, may be found the following 
paragraph, which reads like a requiem: "Another 
relic of Old London has lately passed away ; the holy 
well of St. Clement, on the north of St. Clement 
Danes Church, has been filled in and covered over 
with earth and rubble, in order to form part of the 
foundation of the Law Courts of the future." On 
the 3rd of September of the same year (1874) the 
Standard refers to this supposed choking up of the 
old well, and suggests that "there had been a mis- 
apprehension, for the well, instead of being choked 
up, was delivering into the main drainage of London 
something like 30,000 gallons of water daily of 
exquisite purity. This flow of water which wells up 
from the low-lying chalk through a fault in the 
London Clay, will be utilised for the new Law 
Courts." A contributor to Notes and Queries (9th 
series, July 29, 1899) draws attention to the following 
particulars from a correspondent, a Mr. J. C. Asten, 
in the Morning Herald of July 5, 1899: "Having 
lived at No. 273, Strand, for thirty years from 1858, 
it may interest your readers to know that at the back 
of No. 274, between that house and Holy Well Street, 
there exists an old well, which most probably is the 
' Holy Well.' It is now built over. I and others 
have frequently drunk the exceedingly cool, bright 
water. There was an abundance of it, for in the later 
years a steam-printer used it to fill his boilers." An 
interesting account of another well, less likely, how- 
ever, to be the true well, is given by the late Mr. 
G. A. Sala in " Things I have Seen and People I 
have Met" (1894), who describes the clearing of the 
well which was not under, but behind the "Old Dog," 

63 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

in Holy Well Street, where he resided for some 
months about 1840. One or two interesting things 
turned up, amongst them being a broken punch bowl, 
having a William and Mary guinea inserted at the 
bottom ; a scrap of paper with the words in faded ink, 
" Oliver Goldsmith, 13s. iod.," perhaps a tavern score, 
and a variety of other articles. 

The erection of the new Law Courts — 1874-82 — 
which, with the piece of garden ground on the western 
side, cover a space of nearly 8 acres, 1 swept away 
numbers of squalid courts, alleys, and houses, includ- 
ing a portion of Clement's Inn, where the well was. 
Further west another large area was denuded of 
houses, by which Holywell Street — demolished in 
1 901 — and nearly the whole of Wych Street (a few 
houses on its northern side only being left), have been 
wiped off the map. 

In order, if possible, to obtain some corroboration 
of the Standards statement that the spring existed in 
1874, the writer applied for information on the point 
to the Clerk of Works 2 at the Royal Courts of 
Justice, who wrote that he could find no trace of St. 
Clement's Well, so that the report in the Times 
(quoted above) is probably correct. The water-supply 
to the Courts of Justice, he adds in his letter of June 
13, 1907, is from the Water Board's mains, and an 

1 " The existing buildings cover 5 acres, and the remaining 
2 acres have hitherto formed the pleasant green space on the 
Clement's Inn side, to the west. Two-thirds of this space is to 
be occupied by the new Court. The remaining one-third will 
still remain open to the public" {Daily Telegraph, January 13, 
1909). 

2 Mr. E. Carpenter, who kindly communicated the informa- 
tion contained in the above paragraph to the author by letter. 

64 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

underground tank, used for the steam-engine boilers, 
situated between the principal and east blocks, is filled 
partly from the roofs and partly from shallow wells in 
the north (Carey Street) area of the building — the 
overflow running into the drains. 

On the Ordnance Survey Map, published in 1874, 
a spot is marked on the open space west of the Law 
Courts with the words " Site of St. Clement's Well " : 
this spot is distant about 200 feet north from the 
Church of St. Clement Danes, and about 90 feet east 
of Clement's Inn Hall, which was then standing. The 
Inn, with the ground attached to it, was disposed of 
not long after 1884, when the Society of Clement's 
Inn had been disestablished. 

To the north of the main thoroughfare of High 
Holborn, and rather more than half-way up Gray's 
Inn Road on the east side, was a well formerly 
appertaining to the Benedictine Nunnery of St. 
Mary's, Clerkenwell. The way to it is marked on 
Agas's map of the sixteenth century as a country 
lane (it used to be called Gray's Inn Lane), winding 
pleasantly between fields and hedgerows, though, 
strangely enough, it is recorded that it was paved so 
long ago as 14 1 7. "I take it," says Mr. Tomlins, in 
his " Perambulation of Islington" (1858), " Bagnigge 
Wells was the Reddewell or Reedwell mentioned in 
the Register of Clerkenwell." This is doubtless iden- 
tical with the Rad Well of Stow. That part of the 
road which followed the course of the Holebourne 
from Clerkenwell to Kentish Town, and lay in the 
valley between Clerkenwell and Battle Bridge, was 
called Bagnigge Vale, the river there being called 
Bagnigge Wash, and the wall of Bagnigge House, 

65 E 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Bagnigge Wall. It is to be noted that Bagnigge 
Wells Road (afterwards King's Cross Road), is partly 
in Clerkenwell and partly in St. Pancras parish : the 
house itself was in Clerkenwell. Until this part was 
drained, a great drawback was its liability to be flooded, 
it having been originally a swamp. About the middle 
of the eighteenth century, and even later, the force of 
the current at Bagnigge Wells was sufficient to turn 
the wheels of a snuff-mill. The Fleet at Bagnigge 
was a river as late as 1 700, on which pleasure-boats 
might be seen, and there was nothing then to impede 
the torrents from the hills of Highgate and Hampstead 
from swelling its tide. 

The name Bagnigge must have existed from very 
early times, for Dr. Stukeley found in a Charter of 
William de Ewell prebendary of Vinesbury, otherwise 
Haliwell, without date but made in the thirteenth 
century, Domino Thoma de Basnigge as one of the 
attesting witnesses. There was an old and wealthy 
family of the name of Bagnigge residing in St. Pancras 
in the seventeenth century, and to whom the property 
comprising Bagnigge House belonged. The old 
gabled mansion was, in the time of Charles II., 
literally in the country, standing on the green slope of 
Pentonville Hill and sheltered on all sides, except the 
south, by the rising grounds of Primrose Hill, Hamp- 
stead, and Islington. 

Bagnigge House is claimed by some to have been 
the country residence of Nell Gwynne, and there is 
some evidence for the belief. Dr. E. F. Rimbault, 
writing in Notes and Queries in 1873, gives his im- 
pressions of a visit to the place in 1828. " I have a 
vivid recollection," he says, "of the Long Room, 

66 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

originally the banqueting-hall of the old house- 
measuring nearly 80 feet by 30 feet— in which Nellie 
entertained the King and his brother the Duke of 
York with concerts, breakfasts, &c. An alto-relievo 
bust in coloured delft of ' Mrs. Eleanor Gwin ' was 
over a fireplace. Old Thorogood was lessee of the 
wells when I first became acquainted with them." An 
old building called Nell Gwynne's Room stood in the 
garden. Mr. Samuel Palmer in his " History of St. 
Pancras" says: "At what period this property fell into 
the hands of Nell Gwynne is unknown, but that she 
occupied it either as a tenant— which is most probable 
—or received it as a gift from her royal lover is 
certain." The late Mr. Peter Cunningham, on 'the 
other hand, after long and careful inquiry as to 
the places where she is supposed to have lived 
found himself obliged to reject this as one of 
them.i An engraving described as Nell Gwynne's 
house, when it was in process of demolition in 
1844 is given by Pinks ("History of Clerkenwell" 
P- 559). 

There is a tradition that the place of old was called 
Blessed Mary's Well, but the name of the Holy Virgin 
having fallen into disesteem after the Reformation the 
title was altered to Black Mary's Well, as it stands 
upon • Rocque's map (1746-48), and then to Black 
Mary's Hole,2 which in 176 1 was described as " a few 
straggling houses near the Cold Bath Fields." There 
are those again who maintain that the later appellations 

GiLf^S^^^ 6 ^ ** **« John 

67 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

referred to one Mary Wollaston, 1 a coloured woman 
whose occupation was attending at a well on the 
opposite eminence to Bagnigge, which was among 
the many springs in the neighbourhood. Mr. Loftie's 
idea is that the name may be referred to one of the 
wooden Madonnas, which were destroyed at the 
Reformation. The Black Virgin is still to be found 
in some French churches — "Our Lady of Puy" being 
black — and it is probable that the origin of the name 
lies here. This group has sometimes been confused 
with Bagnigge Wells, but was apparently quite sepa- 
rate, though not far distant. 

The narrator of the re-discovery of the medicinal 
springs was Dr. John Bevis, who in 1760 published a 
book which he called "An Experimental Inquiry con- 
cerning the Contents, Qualities, and Medicinal Virtues 
of the two mineral waters lately discovered at Bagnigge 
Wells near London," which, he writes, "were got into 
great repute." 

It was in the year 1757 that the spot of ground 
in which the well was sunk was let to a gentleman of 
the name of Hughes, who was "curious in gardening, 
and who observed that the oftener he watered his 
flowers from it the worse they seemed to thrive." 
Tasting the water at his request, Dr. Bevis found 
its flavour to be like that of the best German chaly- 
beates, having "an agreeable sub-acid tartness," and 
he proved it on analysis to be rich in mineral contents. 
This well was situated just behind the house, and 
was nearly two yards in diameter, the water ex- 
ceedingly clear, and having a sulphurous smell as it 

1 On her death about 1687, a Mr. Walter Baynes, of the Inner 
Temple, enclosed the spring by a conduit. 

68 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

issued out. The water of another well about forty 
yards north of the chalybeate, was found to possess 
cathartic properties, leaving "a distinguishable brackish 
bitterness on the palate." Dr. Bevis describes this 
one as a powerful purgative ; a less quantity being 
required to be taken than perhaps of any other known 
in England ; three half-pint glasses sufficing for a 
dose in most constitutions. The two wells were each 
some 20 feet in depth : the water was brought to 
one point, and thence drawn from two pumps, enclosed 
within a small erection called the Temple, consisting of 
a roofed and circular kind of colonnade, formed by a 
double row of pillars with an interior balustrade — a 
building after the style of the water-temples at the 
Crystal Palace, Sydenham. In the centre of the 
Temple was a double pump, one cylinder of which 
supplied the chalybeate water, and the other the 
cathartic water. The charge for drinking the water 
at the pump was threepence : half a guinea entitled 
the visitor to its use throughout the season. The 
poor had the water gratis, on producing a certificate 
from a physician or apothecary. 

From about 1760 till near the end of the eighteenth 
century Bagnigge Wells was a popular resort. Some 
hundreds of visitors were sometimes to be found in the 
morning for the water-drinking. In the afternoon the 
Long Room and the gardens were thronged by tea- 
drinkers, especially on Sundays. The grounds were 
behind the Long Room, and were laid out in formal 
walks with hedges of box and holly. Arbours for tea- 
drinking, covered with honeysuckle and sweetbriar, 
surrounded the gardens ; and there was a rustic 
cottage and a grotto, the latter a small castellated 

69 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

building in the form of a hexagon, decorated with 
shells, pebbles, and fragments of glass. Among other 
attractions of the Wells were a bowling-green and 
skittle-alley. Three wooden bridges spanned the Fleet 
(locally called the Bagnigge River), which flowed 
through the grounds, separating the eastern from the 
western portions. There were seats on the banks, for 
such as "chuse to smoke, or drink cyder, ale, etc., 
which are not permitted in other parts of the garden." 

Hughes, the original proprietor, appears to have re- 
mained at the Wells till about 1775 ; subsequently a 
Mr. John Davis was the lessee, till his death in 1793. 
In the Daily Advertisement for July, 1775, is the 
following characteristic announcement : — 

"The Royal Bagnigge Wells, between the Found- 
ling Hospital and Islington. — Mr. Davis, the pro- 
prietor, takes this method to inform the publick, that 
both the chalybeate and purging waters are in the 
greatest perfection ever known, and may be drank at 
3d. each person, or delivered at the pump room at 8d. 
per gallon. They are recommended by the most 
eminent physicians for various disorders, as specified 
in the handbills. Likewise in a treatise written on 
those waters by the late Dr. Bevis, dedicated to the 
Royal Society, and may be had at the bar, price is., 
where ladies and gentlemen may depend upon having 
the best tea, coffee, hot loaves, &c." 

A curious little volume called " A Sunday Ramble 
or Modern Sabbath-Day Journey " (published circa 
1774) describes, among other places of recreation near 
town — Bagnigge Wells, which, it may be gathered had 
in its early days, little to boast of, being " only a small 
ale house, seldom visited by persons of any reputa- 

70 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

tion." Under Mr. Davis's proprietorship various 
improvements were carried out in the gardens and 
permanent buildings, and in his hands it became one 
of the recognised summer resorts of pleasure-seek- 
ing Londoners. These included people of various 
degrees, with a sprinkling of aristocracy, but, like 
other tea-gardens and spas, Bagnigge was by no 
means over-exclusive or select. 

As a place of entertainment Bagnigge Wells appears 
to have been opened earlier than is generally stated, 
for Dr. Rimbault pointed out in Notes and Queries in 
1850 that Bickham's curious work, " The Musical En- 
tertainer" {circa 1738) contains an engraving of Tom 
Hippersley, mounted in the singing rostrum, regaling 
the company with a song. 

Among some of the versifiers of this period who 
noticed Bagnigge Wells was William Woty, a Grub 
Street writer, who issued in 1760, under the pseudonym 
of "J. Copywell of Lincoln's Inn," a volume entitled 
"The Shrubs of Parnassus," in which the following 
allusion is made to the springs : — 

"... there stands a dome superb, 
Hight Bagnigge, where from our forefathers hid, 
Long have two springs in dull stagnation slept." 

Colman's prologue to Garrick's "Bon Ton" (1775), 
imputes a rather vulgar tone to the place : — 

u Bon Ton's the space 'twixt Saturday and Monday, 
And riding in a one-horse chair on Sunday : 
'Tis drinking tea on summer afternoons 
At Bagnigge Wells with china and gilt spoons." 

In later days Miss Maria Edgeworth, in one of her 

7i 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

tales, alludes to this place somewhat disparagingly in 
the lines : — 

" The Cits to Bagnigge Wells repair, 
To swallow dust, and call it air." x 

A relic of the old house, in the shape of an inscribed 
stone tablet is mentioned by Dr. Bevis in 1760 as 
having been over an old Gothic portal, which was 
taken down about three years previously, the tablet 
being replaced over the door from the high road to 
the house. It is now built into the wall between two 
modern houses — Nos. 61 and 63 King's Cross Road 
— probably near the north-western limit of the 
gardens, and perhaps recording the actual site of 
Bagnigge House. The inscription upon the tablet, 
which, by the way, has nothing about wells in it, is 
as * follows : — 

"THIS IS BAGNIGGE HOUSE NEARE THE PINDER A WAKE- 
FEILDE, 1680." a 

Some writers have inferred from this that Bagnigge 
Wells itself was a place of entertainment as early as 
1680, but there is nothing whatever to warrant this 
conclusion. 

The principal proprietors of Bagnigge Wells, which 
in the later years of its career frequently changed 
hands, were : Mr. Hughes in and after the year 1757 
till about 1775 ; subsequently Mr. John Davis was 

1 Quoted in " Every Night Book," 1827, p. 36. 

2 " The Pindar of Wakefield " was the sign of an old inn or 
hostelry in Gray's Inn Road, destroyed by a hurricane in 1723. 
Pindar, or Pounder, meant bailiff or keeper of the pound to the 
manor of Wakefield. 

72 




e /(i/<dm(HM Wd/e^sr^ea/, andWt&ie, 
t/telcy yiHi ' tria?/ naves and auw dim ' ; 




oiv. 



BAGNIGGE WELLS GARDEN'S. 

Frontispiece to the Sunday Ramble {circa 1774). 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

the lessee, remaining for many years. In 1813 Mr. 
Thomas Salter took a lease of the premises, and, 
becoming bankrupt in that year, Bagnigge Wells was 
put up for sale by auction with everything belonging 
to it, including the various rooms and buildings with 
their contents, "Nell Gwyn's house" being mentioned. 
The catalogue described the fixtures and fittings 
outside as comprising a temple, a grotto, arbours, 
boxes (i.e., recesses for tea-tables), 200 drinking tables, 
&c. In the year following the place was reopened 
under Mr. Stock's management, the grounds being 
greatly curtailed. In 1818 Mr. Thorogood had the 
wells, and sublet them to Mr. Monkhouse (from 
White Conduit House), about 1831. In or before 
1833 Richard Chapman was the proprietor, and John 
Hamilton in 1834 down to 1841. 

By the close of George 1 1 1. 's reign, the gardens had 
been curtailed of all the ground west of the Fleet, and 
in spite of efforts made to revive their popularity they 
declined in public favour, or at all events appealed to 
visitors of an inferior class ; the once fashionable 
resort sinking to the level of a threepenny concert- 
room. The year 1841 saw the last of the entertain- 
ments. On 26th of March of that year there was a 
benefit concert at which only about sixty persons 
were present — a sad falling off. Lewis, in his " History 
of the parish of St. Mary, Islington," 1842, describes 
BaCTnia-ae Wells as " almost a ruin." 

Several pictures of the wells are extant ; one of 
these, " drawn on ye spot," forms the frontispiece to 
the " Sunday Ramble " (1774-75)- About the centre 
of the picture is a small, round fish-pond, in the midst 
of which is a fountain representing a Cupid bestriding 

73 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

a swan which spouts the water from its beak. A 
building with a domed room and vane above it is the 
well-house. In 1772 an aquatinta print of Bagnigge 
Wells, from a painting by Saunders, was published 
by J. R. Smith. It represents the interior of the 
Long Room filled with a gay and numerous company, 
attired in the fashion of the period, of whom some are 
promenading, others are seated at table partaking of 
tea. The artist has, after the manner of Hogarth, 
well depicted the humours of the motley company. 

The final breaking up of the place occurred in 
1844. When Tomlins wrote (1858), the spring was 
preserved in the front garden of the house, No, 3, 
Spring Place, Bagnigge Wells Road. A modern 
public-house named " Ye Olde Bagnigge Wells," 
standing on the west side of King's Cross Road, at 
the corner of Pakenham Street, and the great building 
yard of Messrs. Cubitt, in the Gray's Inn Road, now 
occupy part of the site of the grounds attached to 
these famous wells. Their memory is yet perpetuated 
in Wells Street, nearly opposite Mecklenburg Square. 

At the north end of Gray's Inn Road, near Battle 
Bridge, which, as late as 1791, is described as "a small 
village on the new road from Islington to Tottenham 
Court," was a mineral spring of great antiquity, for it 
was one of the holy wells, dedicated to St. Cedd or 
Ceadda, 1 or St. Chad, as modernised — a Saint of the 
English Calendar and founder of the See of Lichfield, 
of which he was the first Bishop. 2 He is said by 

1 Ce in Anglo-Saxon is pronounced like Ch. 

2 St. Ceadda died a.d. 673, and became in his canonisation 
the patron saint of medicinal springs or wells. 

74 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

tradition to have been cured of some awful disease 
by drinking the waters of a well the quality of which 
those at Battle Bridge were supposed to resemble. 
Neither the precise time nor the circumstance of the 
discovery of this well have been left on record, but 
that it was of ancient date may be inferred from the 
fact that, in conformity with the custom of the early 
ages, when each spring had its tutelary saint, this well 
was consecrated to St. Chad. 

It was not till past the middle of the eighteenth 
century that the usual laudatory notices began to 
appear in the newspapers. One of these, dated Sep- 
tember 10, 1762, which was perhaps the earliest, 
calls attention to the great number of persons who 
drank the waters. Ten years later, April 20, 1772, 
a newspaper advertisement mentions that "at the 
opening [for the season] of St. Chad's Wells at Battle 
Bridge last week upwards of a thousand persons 
drank the waters." The well is again mentioned with 
four other London wells in the Macaroni and 
Theatrical Magazine for January, 1773, p. 162. 
From about the middle till towards the end of the 
eighteenth century, the well was in considerable 
repute, at least locally. The gardens were then 
tolerably spacious, reaching a considerable way down 
Gray's Inn Lane, and were well stocked with fruit- 
trees, shrubs, and flowers. 

The terms of subscription for drinking the water 
were £\ per annum, and 6d. each person, except on 
Sundays when the price was 4d. The water could 
also be had at is. per gallon or 3d. per quart. It 
was composed of sulphate of soda and magnesia in 
large quantities, and of a little iron held in solution by 

75 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

carbonic acid : these ingredients made the waters 
" actively purgative, mildly tonic, and powerfully 
diuretic." One pint without salts was deemed 
sufficient for most persons. The water was heated 
in a large cauldron, and thence drawn by a cock into 
glasses — a most unusual treatment, as the redeeming 
feature in these waters is their sparkling, brisk char- 
acter, which is so refreshing to the palate. By the 
close of the eighteenth century St. Chad's began to 
lose its fame as a watering-place, but it comes into 
notice again in 1809 as being much resorted to by 
the lower classes of tradespeople on Sundays. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century it had 
a few visitors of note. Sir Allan Chambre\ the judge, 
used to take the water, and Joseph Munden, the 
comedian, when he lived in Kentish Town, was in the 
habit of visiting the well three times a week. Mr. 
Alexander Mensall, who kept the Gordon House 
Academy at Kentish Town, used to take his 
pupils to St. Chad's once a week to drink the 
waters, and so save in doctor's bills. John Abernethy, 
the famous surgeon, was also a visitor. 

When, in 1825, Hone visited the place he found 
that a general air of neglect and dilapidation per- 
vaded it. He records his impressions in a mildly 
satirical vein : " Entering by an elderly pair of 
wooden gates, a scene opens which the unaccustomed 
eye may take for the pleasure-ground of Giant 
Despair. Trees stand as if made not to vegetate, 
clipped hedges seem willing to decline, and name- 
less weeds struggle weakly upon unlimited borders." 
" On pacing the garden alleys, and peeping at the 
places of retirement, you imagine the whole may 

76 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

have been improved and beautified for the last 
time by some countryman of William III." "If 
you look upwards, you perceive, painted on an 
octagon board, ' Health Restored and Preserved.' 
Further on, towards the left, stands a low, old- 
fashioned, comfortable-looking, large-windowed dwell- 
ing, and ten to one but there also stands at the 
open door an ancient, ailing female in a black 
bonnet, a clean coloured cotton gown, and a check 
apron ; . . . this is the Lady of the Well." This 
rather lugubrious dame divided the honours of the 
place with one Jonathan Rhone, who, for nearly 
sixty years filled the double role of gardener and 
waiter. He was accustomed to give a glowing 
description of the gardens about the middle of the 
eighteenth century, when he entered upon his two- 
fold office. 

In the years 1828, 1829, and 1830 handbills 
were circulated, setting forth in eulogistic language, 
the various qualities and virtues the waters were 
supposed to possess, to which the signature, " A. D. 
Sinclair, M.D." was affixed; by whom the bills were 
probably composed. It was apparently found, how- 
ever, that the mere excellence of the water was 
not of itself sufficient to " draw " the public ; accord- 
ingly an extraneous attraction was introduced in 
the shape of a temporary theatre or circus for the 
exhibition of equestrian feats, &c, which was 
erected in 1829, on a part of the grounds, under 
the management of a Mr. Ryan. In 1833 another 
attempt at resuscitation was made by the then 
proprietor, who announced by advertisement that 
he had " at considerable expense, erected some very 

77 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

superior accommodation for visitors," &c. — this con- 
sisted of a new and larger pump-room, which had 
been built in 1832, the older one having been 
pulled down. In the meantime the gardens had 
suffered considerable curtailment by the formation 
of St. Chad's Place, and by letting out (1830) a 
portion of them as a timber-yard. 

In September, 1837, the dwelling-house, spring, 
and garden were put up to auction at Garraway's 
Coffee House, Change Alley, Cornhill, by their 
proprietor, a Mr. Salter. 1 The next proprietor, 
William Lucas, finding that the celebrity of the 
waters had for a number of years past been con- 
fined chiefly to the neighbourhood, issued in 1840 
a pamphlet and handbills in which the water was 
described as perfectly clear when fresh drawn, with 
a slightly bitter taste. 2 

St. Chad's Well had a longer life than most of 
the other mineral springs in the vicinity. It never 
launched out into dissipation ; it was thoroughly 
respectable, if dull. The site is now partly occupied 
by St. Chad's Place, a small street turning out of 
the Gray's Inn Road and lying between King's 
Cross Station of the Metropolitan Underground 
Railway and the Home and Colonial Schools. The 
pump-room was still in existence in i860, but was 
removed about that time during the operations for 
the new Metropolitan Railway. 

In a collection of views, newspaper cuttings, &c, 

1 At the time of the sale the garden had been partly built over, 
a schoolroom and shops occupying a portion of the grounds. 

2 Wroth, " London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth 
Century," 1896, p. 73. 

78 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

made by Mr. William Rendle, is a pencil sketch 
of the old pump-room and house, taken from 
the gardens : it is undated, but was probably done 
before 1832. On the same page is a sketch plan 
of the gardens and buildings, dated 1830. Mr. 
Clinch, in " Marylebone and St. Pancras " (1890), 
figures the house as it appeared in the year 1850. 
The words " St. Chad's Well " are over the 
upper windows. 

St. Pancras is now one of the most populous 
parishes in the metropolis, but at the commence- 
ment of the reign of George III. open fields, with 
uninterrupted views of the country beyond, led 
northwards to it from Bagnigge Wells and St. 
Chad's. In proof of the rural character of the 
district at a still earlier period, the words may be 
quoted of the dramatist Nash, in his greetings to 
Kempe in the time of Elizabeth : " As many 
allhailes to thy person as there be haicockes in 
July at Pancredge." In a subsequent reign the 
estimable Samuel Pepys made this one of his little 
Sunday jaunts out of town : "April 23, 1665. — After 
dinner, Creed and we by Coach took the ayre in 
the fields beyond St. Pancras, it raining now and 
then, which it seems is most welcome weather." 
The old parish church is described by Norden in 
his "Speculum Britannise " (1593), as standing alone 
and utterly forsaken, " old and wetherbeaten, which 
for the antiquitie thereof it is thought not to yeeld 
to Paules in London : about this Church haue bin 
manie buildings, now decaied, leauing poore Pancras 
without companie or comfort." It was near this 

79 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

church, and, according - to Roffe ' (1865), occupying 
the south side of Church Hill, from its base to its 
summit, that the Pancras Wells were situated. The 
most notable feature of this Spa was its garden, 
which was very extensive, and laid out after the 
approved style of such places, with long straight 
walks, shaded by avenues of trees. The garden 
consisted of the Old Walk and the New Plantation 
beyond it, both being in rear and south of the 
wells buildings. There were in addition a separate 
walk or garden, and a hall, set apart for ladies. An 
old Indian-ink drawing in the British Museum of 
the wells, of about 1700, showing the Long Room 
(60 feet by 18 feet), two Pump Rooms at its 
west end, and the House of Entertainment (135 
feet long), facing the church, with the gardens in the 
foreground, has been reproduced by Palmer, Clinch, 
and Walford. In Wroth's " London Pleasure Gar- 
dens of the Eighteenth Century" (1896), is a copy 
of a bill of St. Pancras Wells, showing the wells 
and the Adam and Eve Tavern, near the church, 
which is similar to the drawing above mentioned. 
In connection with the wells was a tavern originally 
called the " Horns," 2 and its proprietor, Edward 
Martin, issued, in 1697, a handbill setting forth 
the virtues of the waters, which he declared to 
have been found, "by long experience," a powerful 
antidote against rising of the vapours, also against 

1 Edwin Roffe's " Perambulating Survey of St. Pancras," 1865, 
Book III., p. 10. 

The Horns Tavern was just below Green Street, a 
village lying between the foot of West Hill and Kentish 
Town. 

80 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

stone and gravel, and as a general and sovereign 
help to nature. 

In 1722 a proprietor of the wells complains that 
the good name of the place had suffered by " en- 
couraging of scandalous company," and making the 
Lono- Room a common dancing-room. He undertakes 
to put an end to this state of things by excluding 
undesirable characters from the premises. 

An advertisement, dated February 13, 1729, offered 
" the House commonly called Pancridge Wells, a 
garden, stable, and other conveniences," to be let. 
After this Pancras Wells seem to have regained their 
reputation, advertisements appearing in the London 
newspapers. One of these in the Country Journal 
or the Craftsman for March 7, 1729-30, informs the 
public that the " Pancras, Bristol, Bath, Pyrmont and 
Spa waters are for sale at Mr. Richard Bristow's, 
Goldsmith, near Bride Lane, Fleet Street, those of 
Pancras at six shillings a dozen, bottles and all." 
During the next thirty or forty years no particular 
mention is made of the Wells. But in June, 1769, 
the proprietor, John Armstrong, advertised the waters 
as being "in the greatest perfection and highly 
recommended by the most eminent physicians in the 
kingdom." It seems that dinners were served, with 
11 neat wines, curious punch, Dorchester, Marlborough, 
and Ringwood beers," while for those more abstemi- 
ously inclined there were syllabubs to be had. In 
1779 ladies and gentlemen could enjoy the pleasure 
of drinking these waters for threepence each morning, 
or be entitled to drink either the purgative or chaly- 
beate waters at their pleasure, during the whole season, 
upon subscribing half a guinea. It was said of the 

81 F 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

waters that they answered all the ends of the "Holt" 
waters, 1 with this advantage — that they were very 
grateful to the taste, strengthening to the stomach, 
and might be drunk at any season of the year with 
equal success. 

According to Lysons, the Pancras water continued 
in esteem till some years before 1795, but when he 
wrote (1795-18 n) the well appears to have been 
enclosed in the garden of a private house, near the 
churchyard, " neglected and passed out of mind." 
Part of the site of the old wells and walks was 
formerly occupied by the houses in Church Row, 
but these have been swept away for the premises 
of the Midland Railway connected with the St. 
Pancras Terminus. 

The reaction which set in with the Restoration 
brought with it a return to the amusements, harmless 
though some were, but which had been put down by 
the Puritans with indiscriminating severity. 2 On the 
site of the present Sadler's Wells Theatre stood one 
of the music-houses — prototypes of the modern music- 
hall. It was a single-story wooden building, erected 
by a Mr. Sadler, a surveyor of the highways, and 
stood in its own grounds, the New River flowing past 
its southern side. The digging of gravel for road- 
making in this part of Islington, or rather Clerkenwell, 
had eiven to it the name of Sadler's Hollow, and 

o 

1 Holt, near Rockingham, Leicestershire. "A spring, im- 
pregnated with iron and aluminous and calcareous salts, was 
discovered here in 1728, and called the Nevill-Holt water" 
(Lewis's Topographical Dictionary, 7th ed., 1848). 

2 An Order of Parliament of 1647 had suppressed " publique 
play-houses, dancing on the ropes, and bear-baitings." 

82 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

it retained the name of " The Hollow in the City- 
Road" till about 1803, when it was filled up. In the 
year 1683, so me workmen employed by Sadler, while 
digging for gravel in his garden, came upon "a broad, 
flat stone, supported by four oaken posts, and under 
it a large well of stone arched over and curiously- 
carved." This discovery no doubt gave origin to 
the tradition that the well had been known many- 
centuries before, and had been accounted a holy well, 
and used as such by the monks of St. John's Priory. 
Sadler, suspecting the water to have medicinal 
properties, had it analysed by an eminent physician 
in 1684, who advised him to brew beer with it. 1 
This he did, with such satisfactory results that the 
water soon became famous. The "eminent physician" 
was a Dr. Thomas Guidot, who wrote a pamphlet, 2 
under the initials " T. G.," probably a mere puff, ex- 
tolling the virtues of the water, which he says " has 
a kind of ferruginous taste, somewhat like Tunbridge, 
but not altogether so strong of the steel, and having 
more of a nitrous sulphur flavour about it." This 
similarity may have led Sadler to bestow the sub-title 
of New Tunbridge Wells in his prospectus, causing 
Halliwell-Phillipps and other writers, following Lysons 
— excepting Pinks — to confound these with Islington 
Spa, a little further south, although the error had 
been exposed in the Gentleinari s Magazine for 18 13. 
The success of the wells excited some jealousy 
among the proprietors of other Spas, and they had 

1 At Stogumber, in Somersetshire, ale is made from a spring 
possessed of medicinal virtues, near the village. 

2 " A True and Exact Account of Sadler's Wells, or the New 
Mineral Waters lately found out at Islington," by T.G., 1684. 

33 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

not long been opened before there appeared damaging 
statements in a broadside (1684) against them from 
their older-established rivals, Tunbridge Wells, and 
Epsom, 1 also in "A Morning Ramble, or Islington 
Wells Burlesqt," 1684; and in Nahum Tate's farce 
"Duke and no Duke," printed in 1685, reference is 
made to "Sadler's pump." 

At the height of its celebrity, when five or six 
hundred people visited it every morning, the sub- 
scription was a guinea the season ; to non-subscribers 
and with capillaire, the water cost sixpence a glass. 
Dr. Morton, a well-known physician at the end of 
the seventeenth century, tells how he himself was 
cured by the Islington (Sadler's Wells) water, which 
induced him to recommend it. But at this place the 
wells seem always to have been subordinate to the 
theatre ; they enjoyed a certain meed of popularity, 
but never reached the fashionable level of Islington 
Spa. From about 1687 till 1697 tne place was 
comparatively neglected, and the well fell into disuse. 
In June of the latter year a paragraph appeared in 
the Post Boy : " Sadler's excellent steel waters are 
now open and current again." How long Sadler 
remained after his discovery of the wells has never 
been clearly ascertained, the advertisement only 
making use of his name. Upon his retirement or 
death, Francis Forcer, the elder, a song-writer, 
became lessee of the Musick-house, with one James 
Miles (about the year 1699), as his partner. To 
Miles was assigned the control of the good cheer : 

1 The chalybeate wells at Tunbridge were discovered (by Lord 
North) in 1606, and the sulphate of magnesia wells at Epsom, 
in 1618, 

84 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

the playhouse was known as Miles's Musick-house, 
whilst the waters were still advertised as Sadler's. 

A low burlesque poem entitled "The Walk to 
Islington," by Ned Ward, 1 published in 1699, affords 
some notion of the performers and amusements here. 
His description is confirmed by the reminiscences 
of Edward Macklin, the actor, who remembered the 
time when the admission was but threepence, except 
for a few sixpenny places at the sides of the stage, 
reserved for the "quality." Malcolm, in his "Lon- 
dinium Redivivum " (1803), notices an application to 
the House of Commons from a proprietor — probably 
the younger Forcer — of Sadler's Wells, certifying that 
it was a place of public entertainment as early as the 
reign of Elizabeth. Miles died in 1724. Francis 
Forcer, the younger, notwithstanding his culture, 
for he was at Oxford and had been called to the 
Bar (in 1703), celebrated his reign at Sadler's Wells 
by the introduction of nothing more intellectual 
than rope-dancing and tumbling. From the Weekly 
Journal of March 15, 17 18, some idea may be formed 
of the audience at that period : " Sadler's Wells 
being lately opened, there is likely to be a great 
resort of strolling damsels, half-pay Officers, peripatetic 
tradesmen, tars, butchers, and others, that are music- 
ally inclined." Forcer's application in 1735 for a 
licence for singing, dancing, and the sale of liquors, 

1 Edward Ward (1667-1731), though of low extraction and 
little education, was a man of considerable natural parts, and 
with a gift of humour, and though vulgar and often coarse, his 
writings throw considerable light on the social life of the time 
of Queen Anne, and especially on the habits of various classes 
in London. ( u Dictionary of National Biography.") 

85 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

was refused by the magistrates, but without active 
interference. It was not until after his death in 1744 
that the Grand Jury of Middlesex protested against 
the demoralising influence of this and similar places 
of amusement. 

In 1746, Rosoman, by trade a builder, whose name 
survives in that of an adjoining street, was proprietor 
jointly with Hough — according to Pinks — and did 
much to revive the fortunes of the place, obtaining 
a regular licence for the building in 1753. He 
replaced in 1765 the old theatre, which had previously 
been of wood, at a cost of above ,£4,000 ; his is in 
part the building of the present day. In a bill of the 
theatre of 1773, tickets of admission for the boxes are 
marked 3s., entitling the bearer to a pint of Port, 
Mountain, Lisbon, or Punch ; is. 6d. was paid for the 
pit, is. for the gallery, and for an additional 6d. these 
two classes could have the same liquor as the first. 
A dialogue in Miss Burney's novel, " Evelina" (1778), 
proves Sadler's Wells to have been one of the 
show-places of its time : " Pray, Cousin," said Mr. 
Branghton, addressing the heroine, "have you been 
at Sadler's Wells yet?" "No, Sir." "No! why 
then you've seen nothing ! " 

There were occasions when personages of high 
rank attended the performances, among whom the 
Duke and Duchess of York, the Duke and Duchess 
of Gloucester, and the Duke of Clarence — afterwards 
King William IV. — are mentioned. In 1821 the 
theatre was honoured by the presence of Queen 
Caroline. 

The lonely situation of the theatre and the law- 
lessness of the times made it necessary to guard 

86 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

against the unpleasant attentions of footpads. It was 
customary for people when returning home at night 
to band themselves together and to employ link-boys 
to light them to the nearest streets of Islington, 
Clerkenwell, and Gray's Inn Lane. 

Few theatres can show a past of more interest and 
variety than Sadler's Wells, the oldest minor theatre 
in London, having been on the same spot and 
licensed from about 1720. Quite a number of 
eminent actors and dramatists in their day have 
appeared upon, and written for, its stage. Amongst 
the more notable were Charles Dibdin, the elder, and 
writer of sea-songs (1772), with his sons Charles 
( 1 801-14) and Thomas. Under the proprietorship 
of Thomas King, who succeeded Rosoman after 
1 77 1, the entertainments became more thoroughly 
dramatic. King was the original Sir Peter Teazle 
in Sheridan's " School for Scandal." He made some 
changes in the performances, and raised the prices of 
admission. He sold his share in 1778 and was 
followed by Richard Wroughton, of Drury Lane, 
after whom William Siddons (husband of the great 
tragic actress) became proprietor. The Grimaldis, 
father and son, also appeared at this theatre, the 
latter remembered by an older generation as a famous 
clown, who was, in fact, for some years the life and 
soul of it. He took his farewell benefit in 1828. In 
1804 Sadler's Wells was known as the "Aquatic 
Theatre " ; a large tank, filled with water from the 
New River, occupied nearly the whole of the stage, 
and plays were produced with " real water " effects. 
But it was Samuel Phelps who, in conjunction with 
Mrs. Warner and Thomas Greenwood, was so 

87 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

successful in filling this little temple of the drama, 
and in making Shakespeare pay for nearly twenty 
years, from 1844 to his last season, 1861-62, 
producing during that time some thirty of the plays 
— " Hamlet " being performed four hundred times. 
Having been closed for some years, the whole 
interior of the theatre was reconstructed and opened 
by Mrs. Bateman in 1879. Of late years Sadler's 
Wells has become a home of burlesque and modern 
comedy. It is now a music-hall, and the bills 
announcing that the seats range in price from 2d. 
to is. for a box, proclaim the standing of the house. 
The name by which it is still known — "Old Sads " 
— is singularly appropriate in its now fallen con- 
dition. 

As regards the position of the well, Malcolm 
(1803-07) says — but the fact is not elsewhere authen- 
ticated — that it " was • accidentally rediscovered some 
time since between the New River and the stage 
door, and is said to have been encircled with stone, 
with a descent of several steps." Wilkinson, writing 
about the year 1825, says: " Nearly in the centre of 
the coach-yard is a well of mineral water, covered by 
a brick arch." Cromwell, a few years later, states : 
"It is known that springs exist under the orchestra 
and stage, and it seems probable that the ancient 
healing fountain might be traced to that situation." 

Rosebery Avenue, opened in 1892, strikes through 
this district in a north-easterly direction, passing 
between the theatre and the Islington Spa house. 
In the formation of this road, an interesting tavern, 
the "Sir Hugh Myddelton," erected in 1831, was 
demolished. It stood on the side of the New River 

88 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

opposite to Sadler's Wells Theatre, once fringed by 
a row of lofty poplars, on the site of the " Myddel ton's 
Head," built as early as 1614. Here was the 
meeting-place of a club of actors founded by Roso- 
man in 1753, and in the bar was to be seen a 
painting introducing portraits of himself and of 
some of the actors and frequenters of the theatre ; 
their names are given in Pinks' " History of Clerken- 
well." 

There is an abundance of views of Sadler's Wells, 
especially of the eighteenth century. Hogarth's 
" Evening," one of four pictures called " Four Times 
of the Day," published in 1738, shows a corner of the 
Sir Hugh Myddelton Tavern, with projecting sign- 
board, and a part of a building with the words, 
" Sadler's Wells " over the door, but there is a want 
of topographical accuracy in the picture, which seems 
only intended to convey some idea of the locality of 
the supposed scene. Pinks has a north view of 
Sadler's Wells in 1720, and Wilkinson's " Londina 
Illustrata " contains an engraving 1 from a drawing; 
by R. C. Andrews of the south-west side, 1792, with 
a smaller view of the same as it was before 1765. 
Many others may be seen in the Percival collection 
relating to Sadler's Wells in the British Museum, and 
in the Crace collection, in which there is a view of the 
Music House as it appeared in 1728 (Bickham, sculp.), 
and another in 1 73 1 . 

Islington is described by a French traveller as " a 
large village, half a League from London, where you 
drink waters that do you neither Good nor Harm, 
provided you don't take too much of them. There is 
Gaming, Walking, Dancing ; and a Man may spend 

89 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

an Hour there agreeably enough. It is not much 
flock'd to by People of Quality." l 

Islington, like many other place-names, has passed 
through a variety of forms. It seems to be a 
vernacular corruption of Yseldon. Some have 
referred the etymology to Isendune, Hill of Iron 
(isen, A.S. for iron ; and dun, a hill fort), 
because it is written Isendune, as well as Iseldone, 2 
in Domesday Book, and particularly because sulphuret 
of iron has been discovered in the district, besides 
chalybeate springs. The discovery of one of these 
on a spot to the south-east of the New River Head, 
dates from, or shortly before, the year 1684, when a 
rhyming advertisement appeared referring to " the 
sweet gardens and arbours of pleasure " at what after- 
wards became a fashionable lounge. It is not known 
precisely at what date the chalybeate spring was first 
opened to the public, but as early as 1685 it was 
evidently well known, the following curious announce- 
ment appearing in the London Gazette of the 24th of 
September in that year, commencing : " Whereas Mr. 
John Langley, of London, Merchant, bought the 
Rhinoceros and Islington Wells," &c. — an odd com- 
bination of purchases ! An early visitor of note here 
was Evelyn, who has the following entry in his Diary 
under June 11, 1686: "I went to see Middelton's 



1 " Memoirs and Observations in his Travels over England," 
by M. Misson, 1719, p. 161 ; originally published in French in 
1698. (British Museum.) 

3 In an ancient deed — 8th Henry VI. (1430), the spelling is 
Iseldon, and in the poem of the " Turnament of Totenham," a 
burlesque on the parade and fopperies of chivalry, written prob- 
ably in 1456, it is spelt Hyssylton. 

90 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

receptacle of water at the New River, and the new 
Spa Wells neare." It is possible that Sadler's Wells 
is meant, as the two were within a stone's throw of 
each other, and were opened almost simultaneously. 
The original name was Islington Wells, but it soon 
acquired the secondary title of New Tunbridge Wells, 
by which it was generally known until about 1754, 
when the name of Islington Spa came into use. It 
has furnished the subject of numerous poems, plays, 
songs, and satires. One of the last, entitled, " Isling- 
ton Wells or the Threepenny Academy," 1691, shows 
in a few lines the real purpose of some of the visitors 
in frequenting the place. 



" Of either sex whole droves together, 
To see and to be seen flocked thither, 
To drink — and not to drink the water, 
And here promiscuously to chatter." 



Contemporary writers describe the curiously assorted 
company frequenting the gardens, which from about 
1690 to 1700 were much visited. A few valetudi- 
narians might be found as early as seven o'clock in 
the morning, but most of the visitors did not come 
till some hours later, when the gardens would be filled 
with a gay and sometimes brilliant concourse, but of 
that mixed character commonly met with at these 
London resorts. Rank and fashion rubbed shoulders 
with those who could only ape their dress and 
manners : the modish spark strutted on the walks, 
his long sword decked with ribbons of scarlet or 
blue, and ladies redolent with powder of orange or 
jessamine, talked scandal and discussed the latest 

91 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

fashions. 1 The gardens, which covered a large 
extent of ground exceeding those of Sadler's Wells 
on the opposite side of the New River, were planted 
with limes and provided with arbours for such as 
preferred seclusion. In addition to the coffee-room 
(40 feet long) there was a dancing-room, and the 
inevitable raffling shop and card-room for the 
gamblers and their dupes. The charge for drinking 
the water was threepence, and the garden was open 
on two or three days in the week from April or May 
till August. A ticket costing is. 6d. gave admission 
to the public breakfasting, and to the dancing from 
eleven to three. 

In the early part of the eighteenth century the Spa 
seems to have gone temporarily out of fashion, and 
in 1714 "The Field Spy" speaks of its forlorn 
appearance : — 

" The ancient drooping trees unprun'd appear'd ; 
No ladies to be seen ; no fiddles heard." 

In the year 1733 a distinct revival took place, when 
in the months of May and June the Spa was visited 
regularly by the Princesses Amelia and Caroline, 
daughters of George II., to drink the waters. On 
some of these occasions a royal salute of twenty-one 
guns was fired, and the presence of royalty naturally 
attracted a great concourse of people to the gardens, 

1 Of the characters singled out by Ward in his poem entitled, 
"A Walk to Islington, with a Description of the New Tun- 
bridge Welles, Sadler's Music House, &c," 1699, that of the 
Beau is a clever piece of verbal portraiture, but too long for 
quotation. 

92 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

the proprietor taking on one morning ^30, and six- 
teen hundred people are said to have been present. 1 
New Tunbridge Wells, for a time at least, became 
again the vogue. The following extract from Mrs. 
Delany's reminiscences, which refers to the year 
before the royal visits, tends to confirm this : 
August 7, 1732. " Poor Lady Sunderland goes con- 
stantly to Islington Wells, where she meets abundance 
of good company. These waters are rising in fame, 
and already pretend to vie with Tunbridge. If they 
are so good it will be very convenient to all Londoners 
to have a remedy so near at hand." Among other 
distinguished visitors was Beau Nash. 

The managers at this time appear to have con- 
ducted the place with due propriety. In order to 
preserve a proper decorum, no person of exceptionable 
character was to be admitted to the ballroom, nor 
were any dancers allowed to appear in masks. 

From about 1750 to 1770 the Spa was a good deal 
frequented by water-drinkers and visitors, who could 
get pleasant and commodious lodgings at the Wells. 
Dr. Russel, who analysed the water, said that it had 
a taste of iron, and, unless mixed with ordinary water, 
was apt to make the drinkers giddy and sleepy. This 
was the experience of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 
who takes credit for having introduced these waters to 
the beau monde. The letter of a young lady, writing 
from London to her friends in June, 1753, contains 
the following reference to the wells : " Yesterday I 
went with Miss to y e New Tunbridge Wells, and 

1 The visits of the Princesses are alluded to in a lyric poem 
entitled, u The Humours of New Tunbridge Wells at Islington,'' 
London, 1734. 

93 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

think it is a very pretty Romantick place and the 
water very much like Bath water, but makes one 
vastly cold and Hungary" (sic). 1 

In 1770 the Spa was taken by Mr. John Holland, 
and from that time the place was popular as an after- 
noon tea-garden. In 1778 Holland, having become 
bankrupt, was succeeded by a Mr. John Howard, who 
added a bowling-green, and introduced astronomical 
lectures, and other attractions. 

The gardens themselves would seem to have been 
kept up till the beginning of the last century. The 
author of " Londinium Redivivum," writing about 
1803, speaks of them as being "really beautiful; 
pedestals and vases are grouped with taste under 
some extremely picturesque trees, whose foliage is 
seen to much advantage from the neighbouring 
fields." 2 

About 1 8 10 Howard found that, in spite of all his 
efforts, the popularity of the gardens waned : they were 
now reduced in size by the formation of Charlotte 
Street (now Thomas Street). A later proprietor, 
named Hardy, opened the gardens in 1826, as a Spa 
only. Two years later they were still open, and were 
visited by Mr. Thomas Coull, the author of the 
"History and Traditions of Islington" (1865), who 
viewed the spring and drank the water which " had 
a slight saline taste and a whitish hue." The yield 
was then only about two pailfuls per day. 

The remorseless hand of the builder had been laid 
upon the spot. The last of the coffee-house was 

1 Extract from family correspondence communicated by 
C.L.S. to Notes and Queries, 8th ser., vi., 1894, p. 69. 

2 Malcolm, " Londinium Redivivum," iii. pp. 230, 231. 

94 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

demolished in 1840, and the two rows of small houses, 
called Spa Cottages, were built upon the site of the 
gardens, and are still standing. But the old well was 
there, enclosed, as formerly, by grotto work. From 
about 1840-42 a surgeon named Molloy resided in 
the proprietor's house, No. 6, Lloyd's Row, where a 
new entrance, facing the New River Head, was 
removed for the building of Eliza Place. Molloy 
dispensed the water to invalids for an annual sub- 
scription of one guinea, or for sixpence each visit. 
He preserved the well in an outbuilding attached to 
the east side of his house. The water was not 
advertised after his tenancy, though it continued to 
flow as late as i860. 

Mr. Philip Norman has put upon record a visit he 
paid to the place in 1894, 1 when he found what 
remained of the well in some grotto work, with stone 
pilasters, and on each side steps descending. In the 
autumn of the same year Mr. Warwick Wroth and his 
brother, Mr. A. E. Wroth (joint authors of " The 
London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century ") 
visited the house and found the outbuilding occupied 
as a dwelling-room of a very humble description, with 
the grotto that had once adorned the well. The 
writer of these pages was there twelve years later — 
August 5, 1906 — and was shown by the occupier of 
the outbuilding forming the back of No. 6, Lloyd's 
Row — a labourer — the small room, triangular in shape 
and only slightly below the level of the living-room 
out of which it led, still containing the grotto work, 
the well being under the flooring and long since filled 
up. 

1 Notes and Queries, 8th ser., vi., 1894, p. 457. 
95 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

The formation of Rosebery Avenue, by which 
many old landmarks have been swept away, necessi- 
tated the removal of Eliza Place, and the two 
northernmost of the three little public gardens, opened 
by the London County Council on July 31, 1895, as 
Spa Green, are now on part of the site of the old Spa. 
Under the coping of the proprietor's house may still 
be seen the inscription : — 

"ISLINGTON SPA, OR NEW TUNBRIDGE WELLS." 

Near the angle formed by Rosoman and Exmouth 
Streets, Clerkenwell, was a plot of land called Spa 
Fields, but earlier known as Ducking Pond Fields ; x 
hunting ducks with spaniels being one of the cruel 
pastimes to which our forefathers were addicted. At 
the north corner of this open space stood, in the 
seventeenth century, an inn called the "Fountain" 
— a favourite sign with Londoners before the Re- 
formation. About the year 1685 a spring of "excellent 
tonic water " was discovered on the premises, which 
the proprietor at that time, John Halhed, vintner, 
held out as a special inducement to draw customers 
to his house. The inn now took the name of the 
" London Spaw," in lieu of the " Fountain," its 
inauguration taking place on July 14, 16S5, by Robert 
Boyle, in the presence of "an eminent, knowing, 
and more than ordinary ingenious apothecary . . . 

1 There are old prints representing these ducking sports. 
Pepys, in his Diary, March 27, 1664, says : " I walked through 
the Ducking-pond Fields, but they are so altered since my 
father used to carry us to Islington to the old man's at the 
King's Head, to eat cakes and ale, that I did not know where 
was the ducking-pond, nor where I was." 

96 




ISLINGTON' SPA J OR NEW TUNLSRIDGE WELLS. 
The proprietor's house in 1907. 



To face p. 96. 



fe 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

besides the said John Halhed and other sufficient 
men." It had a front towards Spa Fields, forming 
the corner house of Rosoman's Row ; the site of 
the building was about Nos. 4 and 5 of the street 
now called by his name. The waters were supplied 
to the poor gratis, but to what extent they were 
imbibed by those who had to pay for them there 
is no information to show. The following verse from 
Poor Robin's Almanack for 1733 shows that a 
stronger beverage was at least in equal demand :— 

"Now sweethearts with their sweethearts go 
To Islington, or London Spaw ; 
Some go but just to drink the water, 
Some for the ale which they like better." 

In the year 1754 the proprietor, George Dodswell, 
informed the public by advertisement that "at the 
London Spa, during the time of the Welsh Fair, 
held in the Spa Field, will be the usual entertainment 
of roast pork, with the oft-famed flavoured Spaw 
Ale," and in addition he promised his customers that 
they would receive the most inviting usage at his 
hands. The Spaw J ale appears to have been of 
such excellent quality that it eclipsed the fame of 
the mineral water. Perhaps it was for this reason 
that the " London Spa " henceforth was merely fre- 
quented as a tavern. 

Cromwell (1828) says the spring "is now lost, 
though water from it was obtainable about eighteen 
years since (18 10) by means of a pump remaining 

1 It seems that in those days they pronounced Spa as Spaw 
according to the spelling in Johnson's dictionary. 

97 G 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

in the cellar of the house in question," (i.e., the 
public-house). The "London Spa" has had two 
successors, bearing the like sign ; one built in 1835 
and pulled down in 1897, and finally the present 
public-house, which fills the same corner site as its 
namesakes did. 

Mr. Wroth mentions a rare bronze ticket of oblonof 
form, incised with the words " London Spaw, No. 19," 
in the possession of Mr. W. T. Ready, the London 
coin dealer. He adds that it may belong to the 
middle of the eighteenth century. 1 

An engraving of the Spa garden, forming the 
frontispiece to a poem called " May Day, or the Origin 
of Garlands," published in 1721, is reproduced in 
Wroth's " London Pleasure Gardens." Milkmaids 
and their swains are here seen dancing to the music of 
the fiddler on a May Day in 1720. On the right of 
the picture is part of a building and at the back 
rows of trees receding in perspective. 

In Pinks' " History of Clerken well" there is a general 
view of the " London Spa " dated 1731, consisting of 
an irregular group of buildings standing alone. In 
front of the houses is a sunken road, and a clump 
of trees behind the houses, which probably stand in 
the gardens. Within a hundred yards or so of the 
"London Spa" public-house, on a site now filled up 
by houses in Lower Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, 
stood a popular place of amusement advertised as 
"The New Wells." Like the Islington Spa gardens, 
they commanded an open prospect of the fields and 
country beyond, but little is recorded of the mineral 

1 "London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century," 
[896. 

98 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

waters, except that they were used to make ale with. 
A theatre was built in the gardens for dramatic and 
other performances, the most popular artists of the 
day being engaged ; the diversions, as they were 
called, included rope-dancing, singing, and tumbling. 
The entertainments usually began at five o'clock, and 
concluded with a farce or a pantomime. Like other 
gardens, those of the New Wells were open on 
Sunday evenings, and home-brewed ale and porter 
were retailed to the thirsty citizens. Among the 
miscellaneous attractions here was a kind of Zoo- 
logical Gardens, containing rattlesnakes, flying 
squirrels, and a crocodile imported from Georgia. In 
1740 a Merlin's Cave was added, probably in imita- 
tion of the Richmond Cave, described by Walford 
in " Greater London." During the season of the same 
year (1740), the grand ddnouement was a scenic 
representation of the siege of Portobello by Admiral 
Vernon. Among others who acted here was Roso- 
man, the well-known proprietor of Sadler's Wells, 
when in June, 1744, there was a pantomime in which 
he sustained the part of Harlequin, in "The Sorceress, 
or Harlequin Savoyard." The Daily Advertiser 
of June 27, 1744, says that to see this new entertain- 
ment there was a crowded and polite audience, and 
that on one night it was performed to upwards of 
seven hundred people. A more ambitious project 
was the representation which was given in 1746 of 
the battle of Culloden and the storming of Culloden 
House. The partisans of the reigning monarch 
displayed their approval of the piece by a too 
vigorous application of their canes upon the benches, 
drawing forth a remonstrance from the manager, at 

99 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

that time Mr. Yeates (or Yates), who regretted the 
damage done to them, while acknowledging his 
gratification at the applause manifested. 

About this period Mrs. Charlotte Charke (the 
youngest daughter of Colley Cibber, the dramatist), 
appeared at the wells as Mercury in the play of 
" Jupiter and Alcymena." The season of 1 750 appears 
to have been the last at the New Wells, as adver- 
tisements of them ceased to appear in the public 
prints from this time; two years later (1752) the 
proprietor, Yeates, let the theatre to the Rev. 
John Wesley, and in May of that year it was con- 
verted into a Methodist tabernacle. A few years 
afterwards the theatre was pulled down, probably in 
I 756, when Rosoman Row was built. 

Unlike its near neighbour Islington, Clerkenwell 1 
is not mentioned in Domesday Book. The great 
Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, founded near the 
end of the twelfth century, and other scarcely less 
important religious houses, formed the nucleus around 
which this suburb gradually grew, but even when 
Stow wrote his "Survey," towards the end of the 
sixteenth century, there was much open country on 
all sides. He speaks of " the many faire houses for 
gentlemen and others, now built about this Priory, 
especially by the highway towards Islington," adding 
that "the fields here were commodious for the 
citizens to walk about and otherwise recruit their 
dulled spirits in the sweet and wholesome ayre." 

The earliest notice extant of Clerks' Well is to 

1 It may be hardly necessary to remind the reader that the 
plural endings to some few nouns in Anglo-Saxon were an or 
en, hence Clerken Well means the Clerks' Well. 

100 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

be found in FitzStephen's Chronicle {circa 1180-82), 
in which he alludes to the springs on the northern 
side of London. Both Clerks' Well and Skinners' 
Well, which lay near it, have a special interest and 
importance in connection with the forerunners of 
the English drama, the so-called " Miracles " — 
Miracle or Mystery plays — which had superseded the 
profane Mummeries, remnants of paganism. 

It will be of interest to outline very briefly their 
character and development, and in so doing making 
use chiefly of the concise survey of the subject in 
"The Tutorial History of English Literature," by Mr. 
A. J. Wyatt (1907). 

The material of the Mysteries was usually taken 
from Biblical subjects, and the Miracles consisted of 
the legends of saints, in whose honour they were 
acted. The earliest Miracles probably date from the 
close of the eleventh century, but none have survived 
of earlier date than the twelfth, and none entirely 
in the vernacular earlier than the thirteenth. By 
degrees the scene passed from the church to the 
public place or street ; the action developed ; and 
the actors were priests supported by lay-folk, or were 
lay-folk alone. The dialogue in these plays was 
generally set in rhyming stanzas, which were probably 
delivered in a kind of monotone, and this would 
account for the parish clerks being employed as 
actors ; their familiarity with sacred subjects and their 
proficiency in chanting recitative specially fitting them 
to take part in such performances. 

When the Miracles fell into lay hands alone they 
increased in popular favour, and the festival of Corpus 
Christi, which usually fell in June, from being a holy 

101 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

day, became a holiday devoted to the enactment of 
Miracles by the various trade guilds. The Christmas 
and Easter scenes, which had originally been the 
nucleus of the whole, were expanded until a complete 
cycle of plays was formed, starting from the Creation 
and Fall of Man, embracing certain Old Testament 
episodes bearing upon the Gospel narrative, and 
rounding off the whole with the Judgment. Four such 
cycles have come down to us, called respectively the 
York, Wakefield, Chester, and Coventry plays. 

The York cycle, numbering forty-eight plays, dates 
from the middle of the fourteenth century. In the 
Wakefield cycle comic relief was sometimes given. 
The Miracle cycles continued to be played till the close 
of the sixteenth century. 

The collection known as the Chester Mysteries was 
acted in that city in the year 1327, and contains " The 
Fall of Lucifer," acted bytheTanners; "The Creation," 
by the Drapers ; " The Last Supper," by the Bakers ; 
" The Resurrection," by the Skinners, &c. 

The Coventry cycle contains allegorical personages 
which represent a partial transition to the next stage 
in the development of the drama, the Morality play, 
dating from the fifteenth century, in which the char- 
acters were abstractions or allegorical representations 
of virtues, vices, mental faculties, &c, such as Charity, 
Sin, Death, Hope, Faith, or the like. Comic relief 
was sometimes provided in the Moralities by means of 
an Interlude, which was often acted by household 
servants or retainers. 

Stow makes quaint allusion to the time-honoured 
custom of dramatic representations of sacred subjects : 
"The Parish Clarkes in London of old time were 

102 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

accustomed yearely to assemble, and to play some 
large historie of Holy Scripture." He says that the 
Skinners' Well was so called " for that the Skinners 
of London * held there certain plays yearly played 
of Holy Scripture." It was here that in 1390 the 
clerks performed for three days representations of the 
" Passion of Our Lord and of the Creation of the 
World" before King Richard II., his Queen and 
Court. In 1409, the tenth of Henry IV., there was 
another great performance which lasted eight days, 
and " was of matter from the Creation of the World ; 
there were to see the same, the most part of the 
nobles and gentles of England " (Stow). 

William Hone, writing of the Miracle Plays of the 
Middle Ages (1823) 2 points out that the configura- 
tion of the ground was very favourable for viewing 
the performances at the wells, as there was a rapid 
slope from Clerkenwell Green down to the valley of 
the Fleet, forming a sort of natural amphitheatre, 
whence the spectators could see distinctly all that 
went on below them. 

The site of Clerks' Well is known. Stow says it 
was " not far from the west end of Clerkenwell 
(parish) Church, but close without the wall that 
incloseth it." In his day some care was evidently 
taken to preserve its waters from the contamination 
of surface drainage. This can be realised by refer- 
ence to Agas's pictorial plan of London, in which 

1 The Skinners were incorporated in the first year of 
Edward III. (1327), and formed a brotherhood in the eighteenth 
of Richard II. (1395). There does not seem to be any authority 
for the statement that the Skinners held plays. 

2 " Ancient Mysteries described," &c, pp. 206, 207. 

103 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

the water is represented gushing from a spout at 
the south-west corner of St. Mary's Nunnery, and 
falling into a trough, enclosed by a low wall — doubtless 
the curbing- stone to which Stow refers. 

One of the earliest events in the modern history 
of the Clerks' Well is the donation in 1673 of the 
spring and the plot of ground on which it was situated, 
by James, third Earl of Northampton — whose family, 
the Comptons, occupied the old manor-house of 
Clerkenwell till nearly the end of the seventeenth 
century — for the use of the poor of the parish of 
St. James. The Vestry, however, thought fit to 
lease the spring "for the benefit of the poor" to a 
brewer — John Crosse. In regard to this transaction 
Strype says (1720): "One Mr. Crosse, a brewer, 
hath this well enclosed, but the water runs from 
him by means of a conduit into the said place (i.e., in 
a lane leading from Clerkenwell to Hockley-in-the- 
Hole). 1 It is enclosed with a high wall, which 
formerly was built to bound Clerkenwell Close ; the 
present well being also enclosed by another lower 
wall from the street. The way to it is through a 
little house which was the watch-house ; you go down 
a good many steps to it. The well had formerly iron- 
work and brass cocks, which are now cut off. The 
water spins through the old wall. I was there and 
tasted the water and found it excellently clear, sweet, 
and well tasted." 2 

Wilkinson has an illustration of the pump in 

1 An infamous locality in the eighteenth century ; the haunt 
of thieves, highwaymen, bull-baiters, and backsword players. 

2 The Clerks' Well was fifty years ago (about 1858) still 
marked by the pump. 

104 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

"Londina Illustrata " (1825), as erected by the 
parishioners in 1800, near the south-east corner of 
Ray Street, the spring from which it was supplied 
being 4 feet eastwards. An iron tablet was fixed over 
the pump in the latter year to commemorate the per- 
formances of the parish clerks of London " in remote 
ages," and calling attention to the fact that " the 
water was greatly esteemed by the prior and brethren 
of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and the 
Benedictine Nuns in the neighbourhood." The 
Order was founded towards the end of the twelfth 
century, and it is somewhat remarkable that the well 
survived down to the end of the nineteenth century, 
or rather more than seven hundred years. 

Mr. John Ashton, in his entertaining book on the 
Fleet, 1 says, with reference to the Clerks' Well : " The 
well, alas, is no more — but when I say that, I mean 
that it is no longer available to the public. That it 
does exist, is well known to the occupier of the house 
where it formerly was in use, for the basement has 
frequently to be pumped dry." More recently Mr. 
Philip Norman records the fact of its existence in his 
book on " London Signs and Inscriptions " (1897) in 
these words : " The well still exists, covered by a 
massive brick arch, under the floor of No. 18, 
Farringdon Road — formerly the parish watch-house. 
This quaint little tenement is now to be let on 
building lease." 

Stows authority, we are informed by Mr. Kingsford 

(vol. ii., Notes, p. 272), for the history of the Clerk- 

enwell group of wells is the Cartulary of the Priory 

of the Nuns of Clerkenwell (Cotton MS. Faustina, 

1 " The Fleet : its River, Prison, and Marriages," 1888, p. 183. 

105 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

B XL). The most important document is one dated 
1 197, relating to the donations of Lecia de Montigny, 
widow of Henry Foliot, and daughter of John Briset, 
the founder ; this is printed by Dugdale (No. xv. in 
"Mon. Angl.," iv. S3), and Feet of Fines, 7 and 8 
Ric. I., No. 136, Pipe Roll Soc. 20. Skinners' Well 
is there described as lying in the valley between the 
Nun's Priory and the Holeburn, in which was a 
large fish-pond. The same document also mentions 
Faggeswell — " near unto Smithfield by Charterhouse, 
lately dammed up" (Stow). In 1197 certain lands 
are described as lying between the garden of the 
Hospitallers and Smithfield Bar " super rivulum de 
Fackeswell," and other lands as between that brook 
and " Chikennelane " (Feet of Fines, ut supra). This 
fixes the position of Faggeswell Brook as approxi- 
mately at the boundary of the City. The Todwell * 
of Stow is a misreading by him of Cotton MS. 
Faustina, B XL, f. 27, where certain land is described 
as "inter Skinners' well et Godewelle, subtus viam 
usque in Holeburn." In Feet of Fines (u.s.) Gode- 
well is described as between the Priory and the 
Holeburne; apparently somewhat to the south and 
on the far side of the valley. The original Charter 
of Incorporation was, as already stated, granted to 
the Skinners in the first year of King Edward III. 
(1327), but for the well to have been named after 
them, they must have existed as a guild or society 
many years before the granting of their first charter. 
Strype, in his continuation of Stow's "Survey" 2 

1 Reading from manuscript, the letters u T " and " G " would 
be easily confounded. 

2 Vol. ii., Bookiv., chap. iii. p. 69. 

106 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

(1720), says: "Skinners' Well is almost quite lost, 
and so it was in Stow's time. But I am certainly- 
informed by a knowing parishioner that it lies to the 
west of the church (of St. James, Clerkenwell), 
enclosed within certain houses there." The parish 
would fain recover the well again, but cannot tell 
where the pipes lie. But Dr. Rogers, who formerly 
lived in an house there, showed Mr. Edmund 
Howard, late churchwarden, marks in a wall in the 
close where, as he affirmed, the pipes lay, that it 
might be known after his death." 

The exact site of Skinners' Well is not now known. 

As to Loder's Well ; about the year 1200 Muriel de 
Montigny gave the " fons qui vocatur Lodderswell " 
to the Nuns of Clerkenwell, with a right-of-way 
thereto from the Priory (Cartulary, f. 32 vo.). 

What little information there is about Radwell 
comes from the same source, " terram quam Osbertus 
tenuit in Redwell " (Cartulary ff. 6, 39). The refer- 
ence, Mr. Kingsford remarks in his edition of 
Stow, is apparently to Radwell, in Hertfordshire. 
Its synonyms were Rode Well and Rede Well. 

In Stow's time all these wells, excepting Clerks' 
Well, and Skinners' Well were " decayed and so filled 
up that their places are hardly now discerned." 

Crowder's Well is described by Childrey (" Britannia 
Baconica," 1661) as at the back side of St. Giles by 
Cripplegate, and as having " a very pleasant taste 
like that of new milk, and very good for sore eyes." 

There was also Monk Well, now remembered in 
Monkwell Street. The origin will be found by 
dipping for a moment into mediaeval history. By 
indenture dated on the Nativity (1347) the Lady 

107 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Mary de St. Pol, Countess of Pembroke, granted to 
the Abbot and Convent of the Cistercian Abbey of 
Garendon, in Leicestershire, two tenements which she 
possessed, one in Fleet Street, the other in Shere- 
bourne Lane. In return for these the Abbot and 
Convent were to maintain one monk in a hermitage 
near Cripplegate, to pray for the soul of Aymer de 
Valence, late Earl of Pembroke, &C. 1 

A little to the west is Well Street, for there was 
also a St. Giles's Well. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century the 
district about Tabernacle and Paul Streets was known 
as St. Agnes le Clear, from a celebrated well or pool 
of that name near Old Street. The well and district 
have been variously called Dame Annis the Clear 
(Stow), Anniseed Clear (Defoe), and Agnes le Clair. 
The streets at present comprising the district are 
almost entirely given up to business houses, ware- 
houses, manufacturing houses, and offices. In a 
survey of 1567, Bonhill (or Bunhill), one of the 
three great fields of the Manor of Finsbury, is 
described as abutting on Chiswell Street on the 
south, and on the north on the " highway that leadeth 
from Wenlock's burn to the well called Dame Agnes 
the Cleere." Maitland, in his " History of London " 
(edition 1756), alludes to St. Agnes le Clair as the 
" celebrated spring at the entrance to the small village 
of Hoxton." To be more exact, it lay at the Old 
Street end of Paul Street, the northern extremity of 
Wilson Street, Finsbury Square. It was anciently 
in great esteem from the plentiful supply and sweet- 

1 " Monasticon Anglicanum," Dugdale, v. 328-330. 
108 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

ness of its water. In Henry VIII.'s reign, when the 
fervour of the Reformation was just setting in, the 
prefix " Saint " was dropped, and the spring was 
rechristened " Dame A^nes a Gere." The following- 
curious dialogue between a country gentleman and 
a citizen occurs in " The Pleasant Walks of Moore 
Fields" (1607), placing the existence of the spring as 
far back as the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and 
Stow gives this as the legend from which the name 
arose : — 

" Country Gent. But, Sir, here are stones set upright ; 
what is the meaning of them ? 

Citizen. Marry ! where they stand runs a Spring called 
Dame Annis le Cleare, after the name of a rich London 
Widow, Annis Clare, who, matching herself with a riotous 
Courtier in the time of Edward I., he vainly consumed all 
her wealth : there she drowned herself, being then but a 
shallow ditch or running water." 

Ben Jonson's Comedy of "Bartholomew Fair" 1 
contains a reference to this spring. In Act iii., 
Scene 1, one of the characters, Captain Whit, delivers 
himself thus : "A delicate show-pig, little mistress, 
with shweet sauce, and crackling, like de bay-leaf 
i' de fire, la ! tou shalt ha' de clean side o' de table- 
clot, and di glass vashed with phatersh (waters) of 
Dame Annesh Cleare." 

Among the surveys taken by the Parliament in 
1650, the well is stated to have lain upon waste lands 
"late belonging to ' Charles Stuart,' sometime King of 
England " — in other words, Crown lands — and was 
environed with a brick wall. The well was iS feet 
deep, and the waters were said to be valuable in 

1 " Bartholomew Fair " was produced at the Hope Theatre 
on the Bank-side (Southwark), October 31, 1614. 

109 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

rheumatic and nervous cases. In digging the founda- 
tions for repairs towards the end of the eighteenth 
century, many ancient copper coins, lachrymatories l 
(tear bottles), and other antiquities were discovered — ■ 
probably votive offerings made in earlier times to the 
guardian spirit of the well. 

During the eighteenth century advertisements 
appeared at intervals calling attention to the virtues 
of the mineral spring, and of the baths, which were 
opened apparently in 1 73 1, as some time in that year 
notice was given — " That there is now opened at 
St. Agnes le Clear, near Hoxton, not far from Moor- 
fields, the place formerly distinguished by the sign of 
the ' Sun and Pool of Bethesda,' A New Cold Bath, 
larger and more commodious than any in or about 
London, being 30 feet long, 20 feet broad, and 
4 feet 6 inches deep, the water continually running; 
where ladies and gentlemen may depend upon suitable 
accommodation and attendance." Then follows a 
long catalogue of diseases, all of which were curable 
by drinking the waters : for cutaneous eruptions and 
for inflammation and weakness of the eyes they were 
doubtless efficacious. 

In 1748 the proprietor of the Baths, a Mr. Payne, 
complains through the newspapers of the robbery 
from his garden of shells out of the rock-work, of 
artificial fruit-trees, and of two swans made of glass, 
taken out of the basin of the fountain. A guinea was 
offered for the discovery of the person or persons 

1 Their real use was to hold perfumes or ointments. Many 
of these little vessels have been found in London associated 
with other relics of the Roman occupation, examples of which 
may be seen in the Guildhall Museum. 

110 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

concerned in the theft. Other advertisements are 
preserved in the Rendle Collection ; one of these, 
from a newspaper of 1756, speaks of the place as 
" the original Cold Bath at St. Agnes le Clair, a 
spring much applauded by the learned physicians of 
old, and now greatly extolled by the most eminent 
professors of this age," &c. In another of January 27, 
1778, the Baths are advertised as "Rebuilt and 
generally allowed to be the completest Ladies' and 
Gentlemen's Cold Baths in or about London. 

A handbill of June 19, 1834, is headed by an 
engraving of the front elevation of the Baths, having 
over the windows the inscription "St. Agnes le Clair 
Mineral Baths." The house consisted of not less 
than twelve or fourteen rooms. The spring flowed 
constantly at the rate of 10,000 gallons every twenty- 
four hours, and remained at the same temperature at 
all seasons of the year. The terms of subscription at 
this time were : For cold baths per annum, £1 5s. ; 
a single bath was is. ; warm and vapour baths 
could also be had at 2s. 6d. and 5s. each bath 
respectively. 

On November 16, 1845, a destructive fire occurred 
in which nearly the whole of the front dwelling-house 
was consumed, as well as its contents, besides damage 
being done to the baths at the back. The premises 
were then tenanted by a Mrs. R. M. Moore. A 
memorandum on the same page from which the above 
particulars are taken, states that " the site of St. 
Agnes Le Clair Baths has not been restored to its 
original use ; it is now occupied by two shops — the 
well is still running, the water beino- used in a drug 
mill." This was written in 1852. Till within recent 

in 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

times the portion of Old Street between the City 
Road and Hoxton was called St. Aories le Clare 
Street, and there is still in the neighbourhood a 
St. Agnes Terrace. 

" Not far from Dame Annis the Clear," says Stow, 
" is also one other clear water called Perilous Pond, 
because divers youths by swimming therein have 
been drowned." Its position was immediately behind 
St. Luke's Hospital, in Old Street. The pond or 
pool was filled by one of the ancient springs which 
overflowed and supplied that part of London with 
water at a time when the citizens conveyed their water 
by wooden pipe conduits. Early in the seventeenth 
century it was apparently resorted to for the amuse- 
ment of duck-hunting : " Let your boy lead his 
water-spaniel along, and we'll show you the bravest 
sport at Parlous l Pond." 2 

The place having been closed for some years on 
account of the danger to bathers, it was reopened 
in the year 1743 by William Kemp, "an eminent 
citizen and jeweller," who discarded the unlucky word 
" Perilous " for " Peerless." The open-air bath con- 
structed by him was 170 feet long by 100 feet wide, 
and nowhere deeper than 5 feet, " where persons 
could enjoy the useful and manly exercise of swim- 
ming with perfect safety." Advertisements of the 
eulogistic order appeared in the newspapers of 1748,3 
describing the baths as " truly Peerless, having 

1 The old pronunciation of " perilous." 

2 Middleton's " Roaring Girl," 161 1, Act ii. Sc. 1. ; named 
from Moll Cutpurse, one of the characters. 

3 The Daily Advertiser of August 6, 1748, printed a long 
poetical description of Peerless Pool (Maitland), 

112 



Central London Group of Wells and Spas 

no equal." Besides the bath, Kemp also constructed 
a large fish-pond, 320 feet long, 90 feet broad, and 
1 1 feet deep, and stocked with carp, tench, and other 
fish. Writing of the locality in 1790, Pennant says: 
11 Here is an excellent covered bath, a library, a bowl- 
ing green, and every innocent and rational amuse- 
ment." On leaving the baths visitors would adjourn 
to the " Shepherd and Shepherdess," a neighbour- 
ing inn, to tea. 

About 1805 Mr. Joseph Watts (father of Thomas 
Watts, the Keeper of the Printed Books at the 
British Museum), obtained a lease of the place 
from St. Bartholomew's Hospital at a rental of ^600 
per annum. He drained the fish-pond and built 
Baldwin Street over the site, pulling down the old- 
fashioned house which Kemp had inhabited, and 
erecting Bath Buildings on his orchard : these build- 
ings do not appear to have been completed till about 
181 1 or later. The bath he preserved intact. 1 Hone 
in 1826, when Watts was still proprietor, describes 
how the Bluecoat boys enjoyed their plunge in the 
pool, which was in fact used by them for nearly a 
quarter of a century later. Peerless Pool is named 
in "The Picture of London" (1829), as one of the 
principal public baths of London. On June 24, 1833, 
an historical drama was performed at Sadler's Wells 
Theatre, entitled " Peerless Pool, or the early days of 
Richard III." Mr. Hyde Clark, writing in Notes 
and Queries in 1889,2 says that it continued to 
be used as a bath until comparatively late years. 

1 Wroth, « London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth 
Century," p. 84, and Hughson, vol. iv. p. 414, ed. 181 1. 

2 Notes and Queries, 7th Ser., viii. 214, 215. 

"3 H 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

It seems to have been built over between 1850 
and i860. North of St. Luke's Hospital is Peerless 
Street, formerly called Peerless Row, and on the 
west side, Bath Street— a nomenclature which keeps 
in memory the old association of the district. 



114 



CHAPTER V 

NORTH AND EAST LONDON GROUP OF WELLS 
AND SPAS 

Holywell, Shoreditch— Conventual House of St. John the 
Baptist at Haliwell— Position of the well discussed— 
Hoxton "Balsamic Wells" — Dr. Byfield's account of 
them in 1687— Shadwell— Sun Tavern Fields: Mineral 
spring— Postern Waters, Tower Hill— Hackney— Its wells 
and springs— Pig or Pyke Well— Churchfield Well— 
Shacklewell— Wells at Tottenham— Offertory or Cell of 
St. Eloy— Hermitage and Chapel of St. Anne— Bishop's 
Well— Well in Spotton's Wood— St. Dunstan's Well- 
Bruce Castle— Woodford Wells ; a mineral spring near 
the "Horse and Groom "—Chigwell— Derivation of the 
name— Purgative spring in Chigwell Row— Muswell Hill 
—Two ancient wells, differing in quality. 

EARLY in the twelfth century — the date is un- 
ascertainable— there is known to have been 
a well or spring of water situated on the eastern 
extremity of Finsbury Fields, in the parish of St. 
Leonard's, Shoreditch. It gave its name to a 
prebend of St. Paul's Cathedral, known as the 
prebend Haliwell (equivalent to Holywell) alias 
Finsbury, which was created in 1104. This preben- 
dary became absorbed in the Archdeaconry of 
London, which still holds the patronage of the 
living of St. Leonard's. The well, together with that 

115 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

part of the field or moor in which it arose, were 
given, before the year, 1127, 1 to some religious 
women, by Robert FitzGelran, a canon of St. 
Paul's ; upon which a priory was built " to the honour 
of Christ, the blessed Virgin Mary, and St. John 
the Baptist," for Nuns of the Benedictine Order. 
A Charter of Confirmation was granted to the priory 
by Richard I., bearing date October 7, 11 89, wherein 
he confirmed the original gift, together with donations 
subsequently made by others, of certain lands at 
Dunton, Camberwell, and elsewhere. 2 

The well was probably the " fons sacer " of Fitz- 
Stephen, and doubtless it acquired additional sanctity 
from its seclusion within the precincts of the priory. 
The antiquity of the foundation of the Nunnery may 
be further deduced from a record in the King's 
Remembrancer's Office of the Exchequer, dated 
July 1, 1 2 17, 2nd Henry III.), setting forth that 
the prioress and convent had held of the King's 
progenitors from " time beyond the memory of man," 
certain lands in Alsewyke (manor) in the county of 
Hertford. Some incidental references to the priory 
will also be found in Dr. Sharpe's Calendar of Wills 
enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, in which 
bequests are recorded in favour of the Conventual 
House of St. John the Baptist at Haliwell. Two 
chantries adjoining the south side of the priory 



1 Maitland (" History of London," 1739, p. 772) considers that 
the priory was founded between the years 1108 and 1128, the 
dates of consecration and death respectively of Richard de 
Belmies, or Beaumes I., Bishop of London, during whose 
episcopate Robert FitzGelran was prebendary of Haliwell. 

2 " Monasticon Anglicanum," Dugdale, vol. iv. p. 293. 

Il6 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

church, which had been erected by Sir Thomas 
Lovell, are mentioned in the will of John Billesdon, 1 
grocer, dated in 1522 {temp. Henry VIII.), who was 
a trustee for their maintenance. 

Nothing of special importance seems to be recorded 
from this period until the dissolution of the monas- 
teries, when the last prioress of Haliwell, Sibilla 
Nudigate, surrendered her house to the King in 1539, 
(29th Henry VIII.). The site of the priory was soon 
desecrated : in 1541 a messuage and garden within 
the precinct was granted to one George Harpur, and 
in 1544 the freehold of the site was, through the 
personal influence of Queen Catherine Parr, granted 
by letters patent of July 23rd of that year, to Henry 
Webbe. In 1576 a portion of the site belonged to 
Giles Allen, who leased it to James Burbage, a 
"joyner," but afterwards an actor, and formed the 
site of the theatre, where his more famous son, 
Richard Burbage, acted. 

About twenty years later Stow speaks of the well 
as " much decayed and marred with filthiness pur- 
posely layed there for the heightening of the ground 
for garden plots." In the 1603 edition of his "Survey 
of London," he says, speaking of the priory : " The 
Church thereof being pulled downe, many houses have 
been builded for the lodginges of noble men, of 
straungers borne, and other ; and near thereunto are 
builded two publique houses for the acting and shewe 
of comedies, tragedies, and histories, for recreation, 
whereof the one is called the Curtein, the other the 
Theatre, both standing on the south-west towards the 
Field " (Finsbury). 

1 Cal., ii., 635, Part ii., 1358-1688. 
117 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

When Dugdale wrote (about 1817) the remains of 
the Nunnery were confined to some walls, a small 
arch, and part of a doorway in a back cellar of a 
public-house known by the sign of the " Old King 
John." l The stone gateway, the last building of any 
importance which remained, had been taken down 
about the year 1785. At the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century the chief freehold of the site belonged 
to a Mrs. Newsam, of Hackney. 

In recent times efforts have been made to locate the 
well, and some of the results communicated to Notes and 
Qzieries. A Mr. R. Clark 2 drew attention, through the 
medium of that publication, to an article in the Builder 
of September 19, 1896, which states that "the ancient 
holy well should be looked for in the area between 
Bateman's Row and New Inn Yard and behind the 
Board School in Curtain Road, that is to say, west of 
New Inn Street." This is all very circumstantial, 
but the writer bases his statement on the survey by 
Peter Chassereau, taken in 1745, in which the 
supposed position of the well is marked by a cross 
and the words " Ye well from which the liberty 
derives its name." It should be borne in mind how- 
ever that, as pointed out by Colonel W. F. Prideaux,3 
Chassereau did not make his survey till more than two 
hundred years had elapsed from the date of the dis- 
solution of the Nunnery (1539); the position of the 
well could therefore have been only a matter of 
tradition. Another contributor to Notes and Queries 
(8th Series, May 22, 1897), quotes an article in the 

x "Monasticum Anglicanum," vol. iv. p. 390. 

2 Notes and Queries, 8th Ser., October 10, 1896. 

3 Ibid., October 31, 1896. 

118 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects 
(vol. iv., 3rd series, p. 237), by Mr. E. W. Hudson, 
who says that the well of the priory was situate on 
the south side of what is known as Bateman's Row, 
but was formerly (before 1799) called Cash's Alley, 
near Curtain Road. This agrees substantially with 
Mr. Clark's statement. Mr. Lovegrove, writing in 
1904, says : "The well itself is to be found in a 
marble-mason's yard in Bateman's Row, but is covered 
over." The same writer notes that of the Nunnery 
buildings only a piece of stone wall about 50 feet 
long, in a timber yard at 186, High Street, Shoreditch, 
is now left. 1 

Hoxton was in the early part of the seventeenth 
century apparently a place of pleasant conviviality. 
Thus Beaumont and Fletcher in the " Knight of the 
Burning Pestle" (first published in 16 13), introduce 
Ralph, dressed as a King of the May, who says : — 

" London, to thee I do present this merry month of May ; 
Let each true subject be content to hear me what I say : 
March out and show your willing minds by twenty and by 

twenty, 
To Hogsdon or to Newington, where ale and cakes are plenty." 

A medicinal spring was discovered in Hoxton late 
in the seventeenth century, on digging out the cellar 
for a house near Charles Square, which is reached by 
a turning out of Old Street, City Road. The waters 
are described in a little volume entitled, " A Short and 
Plain Account of the late found Balsamic Wells at 

1 Holywell Priory, Shoreditch, by G. H. Lovegrove, Home 
Counties Magazine, vol. vi., 1904. From this article parts of the 
foregoing history of the Priory are extracted. 

119 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Hoxdon, and of their excellent virtues above other 
mineral waters." The dedication is to "The Pro- 
prietors of the Wells at the Golden Heart in Hoxdon 
Square," by T. Byfield, M.D., 1687. It was said 
to be a sulphur spring, with the addition of iron, and 
according to Dr. Byfield, the waters were capable of 
combating a whole army of disorders. They were 
to be taken alone, from one to two quarts, or five 
pints at most — a fortnight or three weeks together 
being long enough. "There is," he says, "no 
unwholesome glebe (concretion) or any dangerous 
mineral or metal (in them) that casts one unhappy 
ray into this healing fountain." On the contrary, 
they set up "such a pretty bustle or ferment in nature 
that makes gay a well-temper'd Healthy Body." 

With regard to the presence of sulphur in the 
spring, Dr. Macpherson 1 states that " of sulphur 
wells there are none in or near London." He says 
that the chalybeate water at Hoxton had a bituminous 
scum on it, but, strange to say, yielded a pleasant 
aromatic flavour. 

Just below Wapping, and facing the Lower Pool, 
is Shadwell, which, like the former, was till 1669, 
when it became an independent parish, a hamlet of 
Stepney. Lysons writes (" Environs of London," 
vol. iii. p. 382) : " This place (Shadwell), which 
was formerly called Chadwelle, took its name, as is 
supposed, from a spring dedicated to St. Chad." The 
spring has been said to lie buried under a pillar, near 
the south-east corner of the parish church of St. Paul, 
within the churchyard, but that the place derived its 
name from it is at least open to doubt. The question 

1 "Our Baths and Wells," 1871. 
120 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

of the origin of the name Shadwell is discussed in 
"East London Antiquities " (1902), a publication 
devoted to the history, legends, &c, of that part of 
London. A Mr. Hale and Mr. John T. Page (author 
of " The Old Wells of Middlesex "), are of opinion 
that the name is equivalent to St. Chad's Well, and 
that it was given to a well or spring in this part in 
very early times. This view is not accepted by 
Colonel Prideaux, who certainly gives very cogent 
reasons for his own way of thinking. He finds that 
so long ago as the seventh year of King Henry III. 
(a.d. 1 2 13-14), there was a conveyance of land 
between Benedict Clericus of Stebeheia (Stepney) 
and Daniel de Stebeheia, of lands in Stebeheia at 
" Shadewell." 1 "It is difficult to believe," says he, 
"that the name of St. Chad's well could have been 
corrupted at this early date, especially as the well of 
the same name in the parish of St. Pancras retained 
its original designation during the whole period of its 
existence. That Shadwell derived its name from 
some 'fine fountain,' is of course indisputable, and it 
is possible that the fountain may have been dedicated 
to St. Chad, but that fact would not necessarily con- 
nect itself with the name of the district. There are 
also phonetic difficulties in the way. The name of the 
saint ' Ceadda ' in Anglo-Saxon becomes ' Chad ' in 
modern English, and it could not become ' Shad.' " 
About the year 1745 (some say a few years later), 
a mineral water of a powerful nature was disclosed by 
a Mr. Walter Berry in sinking a well in Sun Tavern 
Fields, formerly known as Vine Tavern Fields, an 

1 " Calendar to the Feet of Fines in London and Middlesex," 
ed. Hardy and Page, i. 16. 

121 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

open space of oblong shape which lay between High 
Street and Cable Street, but long since built over. 
The water was said to be impregnated with sulphur, 
vitriol, steel, and antimony. A pamphlet, published 
by D. W. Linden, M.D., in 1749, by way of a puff, 
extols it as an approved cure for almost every 
disorder incident to the human body, either by 
drinking or bathing. At all events the water proved 
serviceable as an antiscorbutic, and in all cutaneous 
diseases ; but it was soon found to be too strong for 
employment internally. Subsequently the water from 
this spring was used for extracting salts, and for 
preparing a liquor with which calico printers fix 
their colours : at that time there were many calico 
printers at Stratford and Bow. At the east end of 
Juniper Street, but on part of the site of the Fields, 
is a short lane or passage connecting Cable Street 
with High Street, called Sun Tavern Gap, which 
recalls the old name. 

There was another spring in the parish "of a 
quality resembling that of the Postern Waters on 
Tower Hill." The latter were close to the Postern 
Gate, and reached by a descent of several stone steps. 
Nothing now remains of it, but its position is indi- 
cated by Postern Row, formerly facing the north front 
of the Tower of London. 

Hackney is not mentioned in Domesday Book, but 
it is probable that it was included in the survey of 
Stepney. Lysons (ed. 1795) mentions an ancient 
record, dated the 37th Henry III. (1253), in which 
it is called Hackeneye, thus differing but little from 
the present name. He prints copious quotations 
from the church registers, which show that many 

122 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

noblemen and other persons of consequence had their 
country seats here, enumerating among its residents 
an Earl of Northumberland, a Countess of Warwick, 
and a Lord Brooke. John Strype, the historian, 
during the latter part of his life was rector of 
Hackney, where he continued to reside till his death, 
in 1737, at the great age of ninety-four. Milton's 
connection with Hackney is only very slight — the 
father of his second wife, Katherine Woodcocke, is 
said to have belonged to the place. Nothing more 
is known of her than can be gathered from the 
beautiful sonnet he wrote after her death. 1 

In the Ambidator of 1774 Hackney is described 
as "a very large and populous village, inhabited by 
such numbers of merchants and wealthy persons that 
it is said there are near a hundred gentlemen's coaches 
kept." 

There were at the latter end of the sixteenth 
century several wells in different parts of Hackney. 
Dr. William Robinson, in his " History of Hackney" 
(1842), mentions Pig's Well — a misnomer for Pyke 
Well ; Churchfield Well, which gave the name to 
Well Street ; a considerable spring on the Downs, 
continually flowing and said never to freeze ; and 
another well in Shacklewell, from which that place 
derives its name, but the very site of which is now 
forgotten. There was formerly, Dr. Robinson says, 
a chalybeate well a little way out of Church Street, 
towards Dalston, but which was not in his time in 
general use. A later writer, Mr. Benjamin Clarke, 

1 She was a parishioner of St. Mary, Aldermanbury. Her 
marriage with Milton on November 12, 1656, is entered in the 
register. (" London City Churches," A. E. Daniell, 1896, p. 228.) 

123 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

writing under the pseudonym of " F.R.C.S." in 
"Glimpses of Ancient Hackney" (1893), says : "The 
well which gave its name to Well Street may still 
exist by Cottage Place, Well Street, latterly covered 
by a pump affixed to an adjacent wall." This well, 
he further observes, is believed by Mr. John Thomas, 
a surgeon of Hackney, to be coeval with the palace 
of the Priors of St. John of Jerusalem, of which 
Palace Road is a remembrance. 1 It may have been 
partially a mineral spring, or at any rate, from its 
contiguity to a monastic establishment, have had a 
holy reputation, and hence the road to it would 
naturally be named after it. Another spring Dr. 
Robinson thus describes: "Some years ago there 
was a spring of pure water near the old churchyard 
and Morning Lane, to which the inhabitants used to 
resort for water. This well had been for upwards 
of a century enclosed within a square brick-and-tile 
building, with a doorway entrance. In the year 1837, 
for want of proper attention, the old building, or well- 
house, was found to be in a very dilapidated state, 
and instead of repairing it the churchwardens of that 
day thought it would be cheaper to pull it down and 
set up an iron pump in its place, which was done, 
and this iron pump, by impregnating the water with 

1 The Templars' House was opposite the entrance of Dalston 
Lane, in Church Street. Within the memory of the last genera- 
tion the building was divided into small tenements of a mean 
description. It was pulled down about 1825. The last volume 
(published in 1908) of the " Fascination of London " series 
reproduces an engraving of it, but this obviously was not of 
such early date as the Templars, and probably stood on the 
site of a much older building. (" Hackney and Stoke Newing- 
ton," by G. E. Mitton, 1908.) 

124 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

the quality of iron, has rendered the water once so 
celebrated almost useless." 

About five miles from Shoreditch Church, lying 
between Stamford Hill and Edmonton, on the old 
Cambridge Road, is Tottenham — a place which can 
boast of some antiquity, being mentioned in the 
Domesday Survey as Toteham. It has been linked 
on to the metropolis with more or less continuity for 
some years past ; now an unbroken chain of houses 
lines the whole route from the City. The etymology 
of the name may be from Tot (Tut), an elevation, the 
site being a ridge of high ground overlooking the 
marshes bordering the Lea River, or perhaps it is 
a patronymic, Toting or Toding, with the suffix ham 
(home), as has also been suggested. 

The earliest chronicler of Tottenham was the 
Reverend William Bedwell, who was vicar of the 
parish from 1607 to 1632. In his "Briefe Description 
of the Towne of Tottenham High Crosse" (1631, re- 
printed 1 7 18), he arranges the " memorable things" in 
"ternaries," the second ternary (with which this account 
is concerned) comprising the Crosse, the Hermitage, 
and the Altar, or Offertory, of St. Eloy. 1 The High 
Cross still stands nearly opposite "The Green." It 
is an octagonal brick tower cemented over, having a 
weather-vane on the top ; formerly it had a sundial. 
An earlier wooden cross was taken down about the 
year 1600 and rebuilt by Dean Wood; this one 

1 St. Eloy (or Eligius), a saint in the French Calendar, the 
patron of blacksmiths and farriers. He was born about the 
year 588, and ordained Bishop of Noyon in 640, holding that 
see for nearly twenty years. Adjoining the ancient chapel of 
St. Mary Magdalen, at Kingston-upon-Thames, were two small 
chapels dedicated to St. Anne and St. Love. 

125 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

lasted for over two centuries, but getting out of 
repair, the inhabitants had it covered with stucco and 
decorated in the Gothic style. Although generally 
assumed to be an Eleanor Cross, as at Waltham, it 
was probably merely one of the wayside crosses once 
common in the towns and villages of England. It 
was not a market cross, as there is no mention of a 
market at Tottenham. It is mentioned as "the hie 
crosse" in a Court Roll, anno 1456. ' 

The Hermitage and Chapel of St. Anne, dependent 
on the Monastery of the Holy Trinity within Aldgate, 
was a small, square building, with a little slip of 
ground attached to it, which stood on the Common 
on the east side of the high road, at a short distance 
southward from the Cross, about midway between it 
and Blackup Bridge (called Blackhope on a map of 
16 19), near the Seven Sisters, 2 and it was there 
within the memory of some persons living in Bedwell's 
time, but had been turned into a small dwelling-house. 
The site was afterwards occupied by the Bull Inn, 
and the slip of ground attached, running along the 
high road, was covered by a terrace of houses called 
Grove Place. The Offertory, or Chapel, dedicated to 
St. Eloy, or St. Loy, is described by Bedwell as "a 
poore house on the west side of the great rode, a little 
off from the bridge (over the Mosell),3 where the 

1 Lysons, " Environs of London," ed. 181 1, vol. ii. p. 745. 

2 A clump of seven elms which, tradition says, were planted 
by seven sisters. These going to decay, the daughters of Mr. 
J. McRae, who resided in the house close by, planted seven 
others, just to the east of their predecessors, in 1852. 

3 A little brook rising in Muswell Hill and passing between 
Hornsey and Tottenham Wood, crossed the parish from west to 
east, dividing it into two unequal parts. 

126 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

middle ward — comprehending Church End and Marsh 
Lane — was determined." He further explains that 
" the house in which the late Mr. Harding, the stone- 
mason, lived has been considered to occupy the site 
of the Chapel, and the slip of ground on the north of 
it, now partly built upon, was formerly attached to 
the Chapel." In Bedwell's time the well was 
"nothing else but a deep pitte in the highway, on 
the west side thereof between his (St. Loy's) Cell 
and the Crosse." He also says that it was within 
memory cleaned out, and at the bottom was found "a 
very faire great stone which had certain characters or 
letters engrav'n upon it, but being broken and defaced 
by the negligence of the workmen, and nobody near 
that regarded such things, it was not known what 
they were or what they might signify." 

The water of this spring was declared to excel in 
its medicinal qualities all other springs near it, and 
in a footnote in Dr. Robinson's " History of Totten- 
ham " (1840), he says that its properties were said to 
resemble those of Cheltenham Springs. This author 
reproduces a survey of Tottenham, made by order 
of the Earl of Dorset in the year 16 19, in which there 
is a field called " South-field at St. Loy's " on the 
western side of the high road. He speaks of the 
well as " now to be seen surrounded by willows, 
close to the hedge-row which divides the above field 
from Mr. Forster's brickfield, and about 500 feet from 
the highway ; bricked up on all sides, square, and 
about four feet deep." 

Some person concerned in the building extensions 
in Tottenham — not unmindful of its local history — has 
named a road after St. Eloy, which, from its position 

127 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

a little to the south of Bruce Grove, must cover the 
site of the ancient well. 

Another spring, known as Bishop's Well, is 
described by Bedwell as issuing out of the side of 
a hill in a field opposite to the vicarage, and falling 
into the Mose (Mosell) " afore it hath run many- 
paces." The ground was formerly called the Well 
Field. The well was dried up in draining the ceme- 
tery ; the main drain intersected the course of the 
spring feeding the well, which was then filled up. 
The water was said never to freeze, and like that 
of St. Eloy's, to be efficacious in the cure of certain 
bodily infirmities, but particularly for disorders of the 
eye. It was also in great repute from the purity of its 
water — so much so that the ladies in the vicinity were 
in the habit of sending their servants in the morning 
and evening for water for their tea, from which cir- 
cumstance it was vulgarly known as " My Lady's 
Hole." There was also a well in Spotton's Wood, 
otherwise called Spotton's Grove, on the north side 
of Lordship Lane, which in the fifteenth century was 
of considerable notoriety. Tottenham Wood, which 
lay on the western outskirts of the parish, was in the 
same century celebrated for its well, which was called 
"St. Dunstan's Well," and some time since there was 
an enclosure called St. Dunstan's Well Field, but 
even in Bedwell's time this, like the others, was 
almost forgotten. 

Before concluding this notice of Tottenham its 
association with the family of the Bruces should be 
mentioned. This originated in one of the four 
manors l descending from John, Earl of Chester, to 

1 These were the manors of Brus, Pembroke, Dawbeney, and 
Mocking. 

128 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

Robert de Brus, or Bruce, one of his heirs, and the 
unsuccessful competitor with John Baliol for the 
throne of Scotland. His elder son Robert, Earl of 
Annandale and Carrick, to whom the manor (of 
Bruce) passed, is believed to have built the manor- 
house, thence called Brus, or Bruce, Castle, where 
he resided. On his death in 1303, his son Robert 
the Bruce, of Scottish history, succeeded as his heir. 
Three years later he was crowned King of Scotland. 
Edward I. thereupon seized his English estates, and 
the connection of Tottenham with the Bruces ter- 
minated. 

The Bruce Castle of to-day is a large brick-built 
mansion with stone dressings, about half a mile from 
the high road, on the north side of Lordship Lane 
and near the parish church. It was rebuilt or new- 
fronted, as appears by a date in one of the rooms, 
by the Hare family (Barons of Coleraine) a little 
before the Revolution (of 1688). Since that time 
the structure has been considerably altered by various 
owners, so that very little of the Tudor mansion, 
which was built by the Comptons in the sixteenth 
century, remains. The only surviving relic of earlier 
buildings is a detached tower of red brick, used as a 
water-tower, an engine-pump under it being connected 
with a well close by ; the water thus procured feeds 
a cistern above. The grounds have been turned into 
a public park since 1892, when the Tottenham Urban 
District Council purchased them with the house for 
^25,000. 

In connection with the little monastic cell or chapel 
of St. Eloy an interesting question arises. Upon what 
monastery or convent was it dependent for its endow- 

129 I 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

ment, or if not endowed, for its means of subsistence? 
as it is unlikely to have been self-supporting. Neither 
Bedwell, Oldfield and Dyson, nor Robinson, the local 
historians, allude to this point. One would have 
expected to find the information in such well-recog- 
nised works as Dugdale's " Monasticon" or New- 
court's " Repertorium " ; but these do not even men- 
tion the existence of the chapel of St. Loy, although 
Dugdale gives a long list of alien priories and cells. 
In answer to a question which the writer inserted in 
Notes and Queries (ioth Ser., vol. vi., November 24, 
1906) it was suggested in a reply that at an early date 
the chapel may have received its endowment from the 
canons of Holy Trinity in Aldgate, but a search in 
-Liber Sancta^ Trinitatis de Aldgate" was unsuc- 
cessful, no reference to the chapel or its dedication 
being found there. 

Woodford Wells parish lies at the foot of Buck- 
hurst and Chigwell Hills, at the southern edge of the 
open part of Epping Forest. It is about half a mile 
north of Woodford Green, with which it is connected 
by rows of humble roadside cottages and a few villa 
residences. The hamlet had till recently an old- 
fashioned country aspect. It owes its name to a 
medicinal spring which appears to have been in 
repute for many diseases about the middle of the 
eighteenth century, but history is silent as to how 
ox when it was discovered. In an " Itinerary of 
Twenty-five Miles round London," published towards 
the end of the eighteenth century, the writer thus 
describes the locality: " A mineral spring, which 
rises in the forest at a little distance from the 
♦Horse and Groom' (afterwards known as the 



1 10 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

* Horse at the Well ') was formerly in good repute, 
and much company resorted to drink the waters at 
a place of public entertainment called Woodford 
Wells; but the waters have long lost their reputa- 
tion." They, in fact, never approached in popularity 
those of Hampstead, Epsom, or Tunbridge, nor is 
their memory, so far as one can learn, enshrined 
in any popular novel or comedy. 

The house of public entertainment was, more than 
a century ago, converted into a private dwelling- 
house ; but the memory of the "Wells" is kept alive 
by an ornamental drinking fountain, covered by a tall 
roof of enamelled tiles, which has been erected over 
a well in front of some wooden cottages, next to 
which is the "Horse at the Well" Inn. 

In the first volume of "Greater London" (E. 
Walford, 1898) is an engraving, 'dated 1884, of the 
inn and the drinking fountain. 

Chigwell is described by Morant ("History of 
Essex," 1768) as a village in the hundred of Ongar. 
It lies between the forests of Epping and Hainault, 
and is about ten miles from Whitechapel Church. In 
Domesday Book the place is written "Cinguehella," 
and in rather later records " Cingwella," formed from 
the two Saxon words Cyng and Welle, that is, 
King's Well, pronouncing the c hard. The inter- 
polation of the aspirate is not uncommon in words 
derived from " King," but the dropping of the n in 
Chigwell, while it is retained in Chingford, is difficult 
to account for. However, there is here pretty clear 
testimony of a spring at this spot, though it cannot be 
affirmed with any certainty that the medicinal spring, 
discovered towards the end of the seventeenth century 

131 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

at Chigwell Row, was identical with an earlier one, 
there being no evidence forthcoming that the former 
was known in ancient times. The position of the 
purgative spring, for that was its character, was in 
Chigwell Row " behind the Windmill among the 
trees." Chigwell Row extends along the north-west 
edge of Hainault Forest, one mile east of Chigwell, 
to which parish it belongs. The waters had a warm 
advocate in Dr. Frewen (or Frewin), a popular 
physician of the eighteeenth century, and a native of 
the parish. They, however, never rose to any 
particular celebrity. When Lysons was writing his 
history of the environs they were "quite neglected," 
and in an incomplete history of Essex by Elizabeth 
Ogborne (1814), the author refers to " the spring of 
mineral water near Chigwell Row, formerly so cele- 
brated but now considered of little account, and 
entirely neglected." 

Readers of Charles Dickens will recollect that many 
of the most striking scenes in " Barnaby Rudge " are 
laid at Chigwell. 

Muswell Hill, which is about five and a half miles 
from London, rising to a height of 341 feet, is part of 
a chain of low hills extending - along the northern limit 
of the county of Middlesex. The subsoil of the hill 
consists of chalky and stony clay (Boulder-clay) over- 
lying gravel and sand. Its summit and sides, to the 
extent of about 160 acres, are occupied by the building 
and grounds of the Alexandra Palace. 

The holy well to which the hill owes its name was 
near the top on the southern side. The name is met 
with in a variety of forms — as Mouse-well, Mus-well, 
Mos-well. In an old newspaper of 1737 the spelling 

132 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

is Mussel, and in Rocque's Plan (1741-45) it is spelt 
Muscle. Originally it was probably Moss-well. 
Norden (1693) says that "at Muswell Hill (called 
also Pinsenall Hill), there was sometime a Chapel 
dedicated to Our Lady of Muswell, of whom there had 
been an image, and a great resort of pilgrims." J The 
pilgrimages arose from a legendary tale of a miraculous 
cure having been performed upon a King of Scots 
(whose name, however, does not transpire), who, 
suffering from some disease, had been divinely directed 
to Muswell Hill, and healed by the waters. The fame 
of the well departed at the Reformation, and in the 
reign of Elizabeth, when Norden wrote, its super- 
natural virtues had all evaporated, though the tradition 
upon which they were founded was still current. He 
tells us that on its site a " proper house " had been 
erected by Alderman Roe. 2 It is matter of history, 
however, that the fraternity of St. John of Jerusalem, 
whose headquarters were in Clerkenwell, had land at 
Muswell Hill conferred upon them by Bishop Beauvais, 
or de Beaumeis, in 1 112 (12th of Henry I.), he being in 
right of his office as Bishop of London, Lord of the 
Manor of Hornsey. The Cartulary of Clerkenwell 
has been searched but no other early particulars of 
Muswell have been found than the few words in a 
confirmatory charter of Henry II, — "Ex dono Ric' 
ep'i Lund' — terram de Mosewlle " ; and in the recital 
of the confirmation by King Stephen of the grant of 
Bishop de Beauvayes, no places are named. The 

1 " Speculum Britanniae," John Norden, published 1693, 
reprinted 1723, pp. 36-37. 

2 Sir Henry Roe, Alderman of London : buried at Hackney, 
February, 1612. 

133 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

original deed of gift had probably been lost, when the 
Cartulary was compiled. 1 Upon the land presented to 
them the aforesaid fraternity, besides building a chapel 
for the benefit of some nuns, established here a kind 
of dairy farm, of which these nuns had the manage- 
ment. It is a somewhat curious circumstance that 
this property, of some 64 acres, originally bestowed on 
the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, whose great 
house was in Clerkenwell, to which the property was 
an appendage, is still successfully claimed as a portion 
of the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell. 

To whom this property was granted on the fall of 
the Papal Church in England does not appear, but the 
farm-house and site of the chapel, or, as described in 
some ancient records, the Manor of Muswell, were 
alienated in the 38th year of Henry VIII. (1546-47) 
by William Cowper and Cecily his wife to Thomas 
Goldynge. After other changes of ownership the 
premises were alienated or sold in the 20th of Eliza- 
beth (1577) by Anne Goodwyn and John Wighell to 
William Rowe and his heirs. In the 34th of Elizabeth 
(1591), there was an alienation from Roe to Muffet, 
but this was a family conveyance, Sir William Rowe 
having married into the Muffet family. The property 
continued in the possession of the Rowe family till the 
latter end of the seventeenth century. Newcourt, 
writing circa 1700, says: "Muswell Hill farm was 
lately sold (as I am informed), by Sir Thomas 
Rowe." 2 It came either at that time, or soon after- 

1 Gibson's " Essay on the History and Antiquities of High- 
gate," 1842. 

2 " Repertorium Ecclesiasticum," Richard Newcourt, Cole's 
copy, 1710, vol. i. p. 653. 

134 



North and East London Wells and Spas 

wards, into the possession of the family of Pulteney, 
and is now, says Lysons (1795) the property of Lady 
Bath (widow of the second Marquis), on whose death 
in 1825 it devolved, under Sir William Pulteney's will, 
on the Earl of Darlington. The family of Rowe of 
Muswell Hill became extinct in the male line in the 
person of Anthony Rowe, who was buried at Hackney 
in the year 1704. 

When Cromwell wrote (1827-28) l the wells were 
two in number and "in good preservation, being 
bricked round to the depth from which they seemingly 
spring (about five and a half feet), and enclosed by 
wooden railings in a field. Though only a few yards 
asunder their waters differ in quality, one being hard, 
sweet, and beautifully pellucid, while the other more 
nearly resembles rain water, and is used only for the 
purposes to which the latter is commonly applied." 

In recent times the inhabitants of Muswell Hill, 
who from time immemorial had enjoyed the benefits of 
the ancient well, were temporarily deprived of them by 
one of the owners of the estate on which it is situate, 
who had the mouth closed. It was a serious privation 
for the poorer inhabitants, as wells could not, except 
at great expense, be sunk on the southern side of the 
hill on account of the immense depth of the London 
clay ; while on the northern side the wells were on the 
premises of the well-to-do classes only, and the waters 
of these wells proved on analysis to be much inferior 
to that of the Muswell. After fruitless negotiations 
an action was commenced to establish the public right 
to use the well. The result was that the defendant 

1 " History of the Parish of Clerkenwell," J. S. and 
H. S. Storer ; the historical part by Thomas Cromwell, 1828, 

135 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

submitted and judgment was given for the plaintiffs, 
April 26, 1862. 1 Since then clauses have been 
inserted in the Muswell Hill Act upholding the people 
in their full enjoyment of the well. It was some years 
ago arched over with brick, and afterwards supplied 
by the Alexandra Park Company with a pump, in 
which form it might be seen on the east side of Colney 
Hatch Lane. The water, diverted by building and 
road-making, has disappeared ; of late years it was 
only polluted surface drainage. 2 

1 " The Northern Heights of London," William Howitt, 1869. 

2 " History, Topography, and Antiquities of Highgate," 
John H. Lloyd, 1888. 



136 



CHAPTER VI 

NORTH-WEST LONDON GROUP OF WELLS AND SPAS 

Hampstead — Geological features described — Chalybeate 
wells — The Assembly Rooms in Wells Walk ; celebrities 
who frequented them — Wells Charity Estate and Baptist 
Noel, Earl of Gainsborough — Mr. Goodwin's discovery of 
a medicinal spring near Pond Street — Analysis of the Wells 
Walk spring — Barnet Wells — Purgative spring — Visited by 
Pepys — Lysons' mention of it — Chalybeate spring at 
Northaw — Trick of practical jokers — Acton Wells — An 
attractive resort in Queen Anne's reign — Kilburn Wells and 
Priory — History of the latter — Pleasure gardens attached to 
the Wells — Analyses of the waters. 

BEFORE describing the springs and wells at 
Hampstead, it is advisable to mention briefly 
the geological structure of the beds forming the hill, 
but without entering into particulars of sections and 
other details, which are dealt with by the authors 
who have written on the geology of the district. 1 
The outlines of Harrow, of Hampstead, and of High- 
gate, are perhaps the most prominent objects in 

1 The few remarks here made on the more prominent geo- 
logical features of Hampstead are chiefly derived from the 
following : " Whitaker's Guide to the Geology of London 
and Neighbourhood," 5th ed., 1889 ; " Paper on the Geology of 
Hampstead," by Caleb Evans, Proc. Geol. Assn. 1873 ; " Hamp- 
stead Wells," Geo. W. Potter, 1904. 

137 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Middlesex, the highest point of Hampstead rising to 
an altitude, at Jack Straw's Castle, of 443 feet above 
the Ordnance datum. On the upper and highest 
part lies a horizontal bed of sand, mostly coarse, 
yellow, and ferruginous, but occasionally fine and 
light-coloured, interstratified here and there with 
thin layers of clay — a capping, in fact, of the Bag- 
shot sand series — which at the summit is about 
80 feet thick. 1 Underlying this deposit is a bed of 
brick earth, the thickness of which is about 50 feet. 
Beneath this and cropping out on all sides down 
the slopes of the hill is the London clay, here 400 
or more feet thick, 2 and being impervious to water, 
the sand resting; on it forms a water-bearing stratum 
or catchment area, and hence, flowing along the line 
of junction from the sides of the hill, issue copious 
springs for which Hampstead has long been noted. 
Some of these have gradually formed by erosion 
several well-defined valleys which can be traced even 
at the present time. Each of these contained up 
to sixty or seventy years ago its own rapidly-flowing 
streamlet. Of these the most important was that 
which extended from Flask Walk down a rather deep 
valley (since filled up), by what is now known as 
Willow Road, to South End Green and the Kentish 
Town Fields. This was the main source of the 
Fleet River. Another streamlet, running in a north- 

1 In sinking the shafts in 1904 for the Hampstead Tube 
Railway at the corner of High Street and Heath Street, the 
London clay was met with at only 16 feet below the surface, 
showing how the sandy bed thins out. 

2 It is of course only where the Bagshot sand occurs that the 
whole thickness is found, the upper parts having been worn off 
elsewhere. (Whitaker's " Geology of London," p. 48.) 

138 



North-West London Wells and Spas 

westerly direction through Golder's Hill and the 
fields beyond, joins the Brent River at Brent Bridge. 
For some years before the end of the seventeenth 
century the curative properties of the chalybeate 
springs in Hampstead must have been known in 
a greater or less degree to the dwellers in the village 
of Hampstead and the neighbourhood. The earliest 
information of a tangible kind regarding the principal 
spring has come down to us through the evidence of a 
halfpenny token, issued by one " Dorothy Rippin at 
the Well in Hamsted " ; these words being on the 
obverse side, with a representation of a well and 
bucket, and although undated the period of issue 
is known to have been that of Charles II. 1 A still 
earlier reference to a well here, which is mentioned in 
Park's " History of Hampstead," is apparently con- 
tained in the writings of Michael Spark, a poetical 
stationer, towards the end of the Commonwealth 
period, in the line : — 

Air, and hill, and well and school," 

the school being one established at Hampstead by 
John Amos Comenius, the Moravian grammarian and 
divine. 

In the year 1698 the Honourable Susannah Noel, 
Countess of Gainsborough, executed an Indenture, on 
her own part and that of her son Baptist, third Earl 
of Gainsborough (then a minor and lord of the manor 
of Hampstead), making over the medicinal spring, 

1 "London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century," W. 
Wroth, 1896, p. 177. The only Hampstead token recorded by 
Boyne ("Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century," 1858) 
with a date, was one issued in 1670. 

139 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

together with 6 acres of heath land lying about and 
encompassing it, for the sole use and benefit of the 
poor of Hampstead for ever. These 6 acres of 
waste land, now known as the Wells Charity Estate, 
were vested in the names of fourteen trustees, who 
became tenants under a copyhold grant, at a nominal 
rental. To the poor of Hampstead the gift was of 
small benefit, at this time and for many years after- 
wards. The trustees, however, seem to have fully 
realised that they had in the spring a valuable asset ; 
they accordingly took measures to increase the profits 
derivable from it, as is shown by the following 
advertisement (here slightly abridged) which they 
caused to be inserted in the Postman of April 18- 
20, 1700: "The Chalybeate Waters at Hamp- 
stead being of the same nature and equal in virtue 
with Tunbridge Wells and highly approved of by 
most of the eminent physicians of the College, as 
likewise by many of the gentry who formerly used to 
drink Tunbridge Waters, are by direction of the 
Trustees of the Wells aforesaid, for the conveniency 
of those who yearly drink them in London, carefully 
bottled up in flasks and sent to Mr. Philps, Apothe- 
cary, at the ' Eagle and Child,' in Fleet Street every 
morning (for sale) at the rate of 3d. per flask, and 
brought to person's houses at id. a flask more." 

This attempt to exploit the waters does not appear 
to have met with much success. The difficulty and 
expense of carriage to and from London must have 
been a great obstacle to any extensive sale of the 
waters. The old Flask Tavern in Flask Walk, 
where the waters were said to have been bottled, 
was taken down a few years ago. The chalybeate 

140 



North-West London Wells and Spas 

water which furnished the supply for this sale in 
London was not, as most people think, the spring in 
Well Walk, but was taken from the head spring or 
pond situated about ioo yards higher up the hill, in 
the Well Road. The Bath Pond, Mr. Potter 
observes, was only filled up about twenty-five years 
ago. " I have often seen it," says he ; " it was a 
rectangular piece of water, about 40 feet long, by 
20 feet wide, and rather deep." 

Mr. Philps, to whom it could not have been a very 
profitable venture, either relinquished, or had taken 
from him, the monopoly of selling the water from the 
spring, and a Mr. Adams, a potter, or seller of pottery 
at Holborn Bars, was now the only person employed 
by the Trustees to deliver the water. 

The person who actually erected the wells buildings 
was one John Duffield, to whom the mineral spring, 
together with the 6 acres of land, was let under a 
lease or agreement from the Trustees bearing the 
date June 2, 1701. The few buildings which 
Duffield found around the wells were temporary 
structures, standing on the east side of the Wells 
Walk. The first important erection was that known 
sometimes as the Great Room, as the Long Room, 
the Assembly Room, and the Pump Room — for all 
these names have been given at one time or other 
to the large room in Well Walk. Some thirty years 
later another set of buildings, in the same thorough- 
fare, but more to the westward, came into existence, 
and they also were designated as the Long Room, 
the Ball Room, and the Assembly Rooms. These 
two distinct sets of buildings, bearing the same names, 
have led to some confusion, making it difficult for the 

141 



/ 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

readers of histories of Hampstead to readily distinguish 
between them. Mr. Potter, in his invaluable book on 
Hampstead Wells, has made the point quite clear. 

The Assembly or Ball Room, built by Duffield, was 
of large dimensions, measuring 36 feet by 90 feet, of 
which a length of 30 feet seems to have been divided 
by a partition from the other, and known as the Pump 
Room ; the two rooms being thus under one roof, and 
situated near where the entrance to Gainsborough 
Gardens now is. A tavern, called the "Green Man" 1 
(now the Wells Tavern, built on its site in 1849-50), 
a chapel known as Sion Chapel, 2 and various shops 
were next built. Gardens were laid out, and these 
included a large bowling-green. 

The searcher of old newspapers will find that 
advertisements constantly appeared of concerts and 
other entertainments to be held in the Long Room. 
The earliest recorded of these, issued by Duffield 
and his associates, appeared in the Postman, of August 
14-16, 1 70 1 : "At Hampstead Wells, on Monday 
next, being the 18th of this instant, will be performed 
a Consort of bothe vocal and instrumental musick 
with some particular performance of both kinds by the 
best masters, to begin at 10 o'clock precisely. Tickets 
will be delivered at the Wells for is. per ticket and 
dancing in the afternoon for 6d. per ticket to be 
delivered as before." Similar notices continued to 
appear in the London Press for some years ; in one of 

1 In 172 1 it was called the White Stone Inn. On the site 
of the Pump Room is a new red-brick house called Wellside, 
built in 1892, according to an inscription on the walls. 

2 This chapel seems to have disappeared before 1719, as it is 
not mentioned in a description of the property at that date. 

142 



North-West London Wells and Spas 

May 5-8, 1702, it is notified that " the tickets will be 
is. by reason that the room is so large." In another 
of the same season — Postman, May 28-30, 1702 — it 
is stated that is. will be the price of each ticket, "by 
reason the room will hold near 500 persons." In the 
Tatler, No. 201, July 22, 1710, a benefit "consort" 
was announced for which the charge for tickets was 
2s. 6d. each. 

The medical faculty, as may be supposed, took an 
active part in recommending the waters to their 
patients. One of the first to draw attention to 
their medicinal value was a resident physician — ■ 
Dr. Gibbons — in the early years of the eighteenth 
century, who pronounced them "not inferior to any of 
our chalybeate springs, and coming very near to 
Pyrmont in quality." He himself set a practical 
example in taking them until his death in 1725. 
Several other doctors of lesser note joined in praising 
these waters. In 1734 a serious effort was made to 
revive their reputation by Dr. John Soame, a 
physician of some repute in Hampstead, who, in that 
year, published a book entitled " Hampstead Wells, 
or Directions for drinking the Waters," but in spite of 
his strong advocacy of the spring, which he called the 
" Inexhaustible Fountain of Health," the number of 
visitors to Hampstead to drink the waters gradually 
fell off. However, in 1802, another attempt was 
made to attract the attention of the London public to 
the medicinal waters of Hampstead. In that year 
there appeared in the London Medical Review and 
Magazine (vol. vi.) an analysis of the waters by 
John Bliss, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, 
the result indicating a pure chalybeate water, contain- 

143 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

ing few earths besides the iron. His treatise claims 
for the waters that " they have been found very 
beneficial in chronic diseases, &c, and where there is 
general debility of the system." Two years later — 
1804 — a local surgeon, Mr. Thomas Goodwin, dis- 
covered another medicinal spring at the south-east 
extremity of the Heath, near Pond Street. 1 He 
seems to have made a special study of medicinal 
waters, and embodies the results in a little book 
entitled " An Account of the Neutral Saline Waters 
recently discovered at Hampstead" (1804). The 
analysis he gives shows a great preponderance of 
sulphate of magnesia, and his conclusion is that these 
waters have an affinity to the saline spa at Chelten- 
ham. The position of the spring cannot now be 
exactly determined, but it must have been very near 
to where the Hampstead Heath Railway Station now 
stands, although Mr. Goodwin marks the position of 
the " New Spa " on a map in his book somewhat 
farther north. 

Having now mentioned the last of the attempts 
by doctors to make known to the general public 
the health-restoring qualities of the Hampstead 
springs, some account of the principal building 
and its ultimate destiny must be given. In the 
year 17 19, his interest in the 6 acres of land and 

1 Professor John W. Hales on " Hampstead in the Tenth 
Century, being notes on two Anglo-Saxon Charters relating 
to Hampstead in the times of Kings Eadgar and yEthelred" 
(1885), inclines to the opinion that a pound once stood in Pond 
Street. It was the fashionable Street in the eighteenth 
century for the reception of visitors of the class dignified as 
the " quality." It appears as Pound Street in Rocque's map 
(1741-45). [Trans. London and Middlesex Ach. Socy., 1885.] 

144 



North- West London Wells and Spas 

the buildings upon it were demised by Duffield to a 
Mr. William Luffingham, at a rack-rent of ^450 
per annum. Six years after this (1725), Luffingham, 
finding the Long Room did not answer, transferred 
it for a long term of years to William Hoare, who 
undertook, at his own expense, to fit it up for a 
chapel. The work of converting it was, therefore, 
carried out at this date, namely 1725 ; r not 1733, 
as quoted by Park and Howitt. The date was 
inscribed upon the bell and the altar-plate ; on the 
former were the words, " New Chapel, Hampstead, 
1725, and on the latter, "Nova Capella de Hamp- 
stead, 1725." 2 It was known as the Well Walk 
Chapel and was so used till 1861-62, when the new 
Presbyterian Church, in the High Street, was built. 
In 1862 the newly formed corps of Rifle Volunteers 
(3rd Middlesex), hired the chapel for a drill hall, 
and it was in fitting the building for its new purpose 
that some interesting discoveries were made. In 
the wall at the north end, a large niche or recess 
in the thickness of the wall was revealed, with 
traces of a basin and pipes having been fixed in 
it (which had been removed to a building called the 
Wells House, near the Green Man Tavern). This 
was evidently the spot where the basin and foun- 
tain, which supplied the visitors to the Spa, used 
to stand. At a later date — about 1874 — while some 
workmen were washing- off the old colouring from the 
walls, life-sized figures of the Nine Muses, with 
the name under each, appeared on spaces between 
the windows, at the sides of the room farthest 

1 " Hampstead Wells," G. W. Potter, 1904, pp. 58-59. 

2 " Sweet Hampstead," 1900, Mrs. C. A. White, p. 271. 

145 K 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

from the Pump- Room end. These discoveries placed 
the original use of the room beyond all doubt. 1 

Much has been written of the fashionable era 
at Hampstead. The company who flocked to the 
wells in the reign of Queen Anne was considerably 
mixed ; adventurers of both sexes found their way 
to the upland hamlet, and the idle and dissolute, 
as well as the invalid and ennuye, anxious to get 
rid of that wearisome attendant, self, mingled with 
personages of rank and fashion and learning. These 
last included many distinguished members of the 
Kit-Kat Club, whose headquarters during the summer 
months was the Upper Flask Tavern — Dr. Garth, 
Addison, Swift, Sir Richard Steele, Dr. John 
Arburthnot (the Queen's physician), and others. A 
passage from Baker's comedy of " Hampstead 
Heath," produced at Drury Lane Theatre in 1706, 
put into the mouth of one of the characters, gives 
some little insight into the kind of company brought 
together at this time : " Assemblies so near the 
town give us a sample of each degree. We have 
Court ladies that are all air and no dress, City 
belles that are over-dressed and no air ; and country 
dames with broad brown faces like a Stepney bun; 
besides an endless number of Fleet Street semp- 
stresses that dance minuets in their furbeloe scarfs, 
and their clothes hang as loose about them as their 
reputations. ..." To the other sex — the fops and 
the beaux — we are not introduced. That the subject 

1 The size of the Long or Great Room in Wells Walk was 90 
feet long by 36 feet wide ; a length of about 30 feet of this being 
doubtless used as a pump-room, divided from the larger room 
probably by some sort of partition. 

146 



% -iH^fe 



=J 






*2< 



K§ 






X ju 



North-West London Wells and Spas 

had ^ not altogether lost its hold on the play-going 
public may be inferred from the production of the 
comedy or farce with the title of " Happy Hamp- 
stead," at the Royalty Theatre, in the year 1877. The 
pages of "Clarissa Harlowe " (1748) contain refer- 
ences to Hampstead, more especially to the Upper 
Flask Tavern, to which readers of Richardson will 
remember the unhappy heroine fled from the perse- 
cutions of the libertine Lovelace. 

The entertainments— those indispensable auxiliaries 
to the successful running of a Spa— continued to be 
popular for a period of some twenty years, and 
during the season, which lasted from May or June 
till Michaelmas, the wells must have presented a 
scene of gaiety probably unsurpassed by any 
similar resort. But among the indoor amusements 
gambling filled an important place ; high play, with 
probably a considerable admixture of unfair play, 
was rife here as elsewhere. As early as 1709 the 
tavern and raffling shops had acquired a sinister 
reputation: before 1725 the latter, and with them 
the gaming tables, had disappeared. 

It was not to be supposed, however, that the 
people of Hampstead, after being so long accustomed 
to their public assemblies, could, all at once, dispense 
with them. They therefore cast about for a site 
for a new set of rooms ; * this they found ready to 
hand, a short distance westward of the old rooms 
in the same thoroughfare, where some buildino- s 

1 For a description of these new Assembly Rooms in 
Weatherall Place, the reader is referred to Mr. Potter's book 
already quoted, and to an article on the subject in the Home 
Counties Magazine for January, 1909, by the present writer. 

147 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

already stood, which, by dint of enlargement and 
the addition of a new ballroom, erected about 
1735, answered all requirements. 

Many are the associations connected with Well 
Walk, which can only be touched upon. In 
18 1 7-1 8 Keats took lodgings here, in the first or 
second house on the right hand going up the Heath. 
Here the greater part of " Endymion " was written. 
Sitting on a bench at the upper end of the Walk, 
overshadowed by lime-trees, which for beauty have 
been compared with the " Cathedral Aisle," near 
Killin, Hone last saw "the poet of the Pot of 
Basil, sobbing his dying breath into a handkerchief, 
glancing parting looks towards the quiet landscape 
he had delighted in, musing as in his ' Ode to a 
Nightingale.' " l Keats's bench, so marked by a 
printed sign, stood in its old place next the Heath 
in 1885. Both have disappeared, but the Heath 
that he loved is preserved to us — 

"... where sweet air stirs 
Blue hare-bells lightly, and where prickly furze 
Buds lavish gold ; . . ." 

" Endymion." 

With Hampstead the name of the painter Constable 
will always be associated. The Memoirs of his 
life by Mr. C. R. Leslie, R.A., contain several 
of his letters, some of which are addressed to his 
friend Archdeacon Fisher, and others to Leslie 
himself; these show his permanent residence "in a 
comfortable little house in Well Walk " to have been 

* " Hone's Table Book," 1827-31, p. 810. 
148 



North- West London Wells and Spas 

from 1827 till about 1834, in which year his bio- 
grapher prints the last letter written from there. 
Like Gainsborough and Crome, Constable always 
proved himself a heartfelt lover of English cultivated 
scenery. " I love," he said, " every stile, and stump, 
and lane in the village ; as long as I am able to 
hold a brush I shall never cease to paint them." 

Mrs. Barbauld, well-known by her prose writings, 
her " Address to Life," and other poems, settled in 
1785 at the then rural village of Hampstead. In 
1802 she and her husband left Hampstead for Stoke 
Newington. Other famous names more or less 
closely connected with Hampstead are those of 
Shelley, Coleridge, Leigh Hunt, Collins, Clarkson 
Stanfield, and Joanna Baillie. 

Analyses of the Hampstead chalybeate water have 
been made at different times. Probably the earliest 
is that by Dr. John Soame, made some time before 
1734, the year in which he published his book on 
"Hampstead Wells." He found that "distilled, a 
gallon yielded between 5 and 6 grains of a kind 
of saline concretion, mixed with a yellowish earth, 
and had a taste somewhat like vitriol of iron " (sul- 
phate of iron). Dr. Donald Monro in his "Treatise 
on Mineral Waters" (1770) describes it as a trans- 
parent chalybeate water lighter than New River 
water that had been boiled, but heavier than distilled 
water ; which bears carriage and retains its chalybeate 
quality after having stood six hours in uncorked 
bottles. An analysis of the water from the Well 
Walk springs was made in 1870 by direction of the 
Metropolitan Board of Works, and another in 1884 
from the fountain in Well Walk after removal to its 

149 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

new position on the west side near No. 17, was made 
by Dr. Atfield, to which a note is appended that the 
chalybeate water had become mixed with surface 
water. 

A description of the state of the spring in 1889 by 
Professor C. Heisch, F.C.S., is quoted at length by 
Mr. F. E. Baines in his Records of Hampstead (1890). 
The water used for analysis was taken from a shallow 
well in the back-yard of No. 17, Well Walk, believed 
to be over the source of the spring. The great 
difference between the composition of the water now 
and when formerlyanalysed, Professor Heisch attributes 
to the fact of the main spring having been diverted 
so that the water decomposes before it can be got at. 
It has no taste of iron and changes rapidly even in 
well-stoppered bottles, and if any use of the water 
could be made as a chalybeate, it could only be by 
having a pipe direct from the well to the fountain. 

About 1885 the public basin which stood on the 
east side of Well Walk was removed and a new stone 
drinking fountain was placed by the Wells Charity on 
the opposite side, resting against the banked-up foot- 
path, with an inscription to the effect that it is in 
memory of Susanna Noel's gift. Here the waters 
may still be tasted, but that is all ; the water dribbles 
out too slowly to get a full draught of it. There is, in 
fact, a notice warning persons against drinking the 
water on account of the risk of injury to their health. 
Yet down to about the fifties, when Mrs. White was 
collecting materials for her book, " Sweet Hampstead 
and its Associations," it was quite common for work- 
ing men from Camden and Kentish Towns, and places 
much farther off, to make a Sunday morning's pilgrim- 

150 



North- West London Wells and Spas 

age to Hampstead to drink the water, and carry home 
bottles of it as a specific for hepatic complaints and as 
a tonic and eye-wash. 

From the nature of the soil of Hampstead its waters 
are more or less impregnated with iron, and therefore 
unfit for general use. The hill had for years yielded 
an abundant and constant supply of water, for we read 
of " dyvers greate and plentyfull springes at Hampstead 
Heath," which in fact was, as early as the sixteenth 
century, one of the chief sources of water-supply to 
London. But it is probable that the water was only 
sparingly used for potable purposes, if at all, for it is 
known that the inhabitants of London were not water- 
drinkers — they chiefly drank small ale at their meals. 
The old conduits and other sources of water-supply in 
Hampstead are so fully described by Mr. Potter, 1 that 
mention need only be made here of the Shepherd's 
Well, a spring in Shepherd's or Conduit Fields, on 
the eastern side of a broad belt of meadows which 
formerly separated Hampstead from Belsize Park and 
Kilburn. Fitzjohn's Avenue, formed in the year 1878 
covers the site of the Fields. 2 The spring here, 
protected by an arch of masonry, was the last at which 
the water-carriers plied their calling, conveying it to 
different parts of the village, and charging 2d. or 3d. 
a turn (two bucketfuls), according to distance. The 
last of these water-carriers died an inmate of the 
workhouse at New End about 1868. 

Drawings and engravings of both the old and the 

1 " Hampstead Wells " chap. ii. 

2 The site of Shepherd's Well is marked by a drinking foun- 
tain on the right-hand side, rather more than half-way up 
Fitzjohn's Avenue. 

151 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

new Assembly Rooms in Well Walk are in existence. 
Of the former there is an Indian ink drawing of the 
exterior by E. H. Dixon, reproduced by Mr. F. E. 
Baines in his " Records of Hampstead," and by Mrs. 
Caroline A. White in "Sweet Hampstead." A good 
view by Chatelaine of the second or new set of 
Assembly Rooms, which faced the open heath, is 
in Lysons' " Environs of London " : the engraving, 
dated 1745, has been copied into most books in which 
Hampstead is described, but not always with proper 
regard to accuracy. 

Analyses of the chalybeate water have been made 
at different times ; it will be sufficient here to give one 
made by Dr. Atfield in 1884 from the fountain in Well 
Walk, after removal to its new position on the west 
side, near No. 17. 



Carbonate of iron ... 
Chloride of potassium 
Chloride of sodium ... 
Nitrate of sodium ... 
Ammoniacal salts ... 
Sulphate of calcium 
Carbonate of calcium 
Carbonate of magnesium 
Silica ... 
Organic matter (nitrogen) 



Grains 

per gallon. 

1-82 
4-08 

530 

8- 5 8 

0-06 

20*42 

I "00 

5-00 

I'20 
Q-Q5 

47-5I 



Note. — This appears to be a chalybeate water mixed with 
ordinary surface water. If this could be excluded a purely 
chalybeate water would probably be obtained. 



A medicinal spring of a purgative character was 
discovered about the middle of the seventeenth 

152 



North-West London Wells and Spas 

century about a mile south-west of the town of 
Chipping Barnet, or, as it is commonly called, 
High Barnet, on the south of the road to Elstree. 
The first notice of the spring is in The Perfect 
Diurnal 'for June, 1652, in which its discovery is noted 
and its medicinal virtues extolled. A brief allusion 
is made by Childrey in his " Britannia Baconica," 
published in 1661, to the fact that there were at 
Barnet " medicinal waters very famous." Fuller, in 
his "Worthies of England" (Hertfordshire), says 
that already (1662) " the catalogue of the cures done 
by this Spring amounteth to a great Number, inas- 
much that there is Hope, in process of Time, the 
water rising here will repair the blood shed hard 
by, and save as many lives as were lost in the Fatal 
Battle at Barnet." 

It is not surprising to find mention of Barnet 
Well in the Diary of the gossipy but entertaining 
Mr. Pepys. That worthy paid the place a visit on 
July 11, 1664, accompanied by his wife and his 
man Will. He records how he took five glasses 
of the water, and it is not to be wondered at that 
when he reached home he was not very well, and 
so went betimes to bed, but not to sleep ; during 
the night he got worse and worse, till, in his own 
words, he " almost melted to water." On Sunday, 
August 11, 1667, he made another journey to Barnet, 
arriving there at seven o'clock in the morning, and 
found many persons drinking even at that early hour. 
Remembering his former experience, he took only 
three glasses, and then went to the " Red Lion," 
where he says he did eat the best cheesecakes he ever 
did eat in his life, and so to Hatfield, to the inn next 

153 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

my Lord Salisbury's House, and there rested himself, 
and bespoke dinner, and so to church. 

Dr. Robert Wittie (or Witty), in his account of 
Scarborough Spa * in 1669, has these doggerel lines: — 

" Let Epsom, Tunbridge, Bamet, Knaresborough be 
In what request they will, Scarborough for me." 

In the year 1677 Alderman John Owen, a citizen 
and fishmonger of London, left the sum of one pound 
yearly for keeping the " Physick Well " in repair, " as 
long as it should be of service to the parish." This 
money is still, or was till recently, paid out of the funds 
of the Grammar School. Sir Henry Chauncy in his 
"Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire" (1700), says 
of the waters that the mineral impregnating them 
is "supposed to be allom, but must certainly be a 
mixt fixt salt of which 'tis hard to determine," and 
that " they are of great efficacy in cholics." 

Lysons, whose account of Barnet was published in 
1796, says, in speaking of the well : "It is now in 
decay and the water little used." However, it con- 
tinued to be used for some years after this, as in 
181 2 Dr. W. M. Trinder published a pamphlet on 
the Barnet Well water, describing it as somewhat 
brackish in taste, though by no means disagreeable. 
The well was then " in a little field, encompassed by 
a brick building." The water contained a large 
percentage of sulphate of magnesia, and taken in 
moderation it was a good cleanser of the system. 

The old well-house, observes Mr. Thorne, in his 
"Environs of London" (1876), was pulled down, 

1 A later edition in Latin appeared in 1778. (Brit. Mus.) 

154 



North-West London Wells and Spas 

and a small farmhouse erected on the foundations in 
1840. The well was then covered over, and the 
water obtained from it by a small iron pump. It 
was quite open to every one, and was occasionally 
resorted to by invalids. It can still (1906) be seen 
in the field belonging to Mr. Vyse, the present pro- 
prietor of Well House Farm, and is reached by 
a public footpath from Well House Lane, but as 
the authorities do not keep the pump in order no 
water can be drawn from it. 

At Lower Cuffley, a valley lying about midway 
between the villages of Northaw J and Cheshunt, is 
a saline-chalybeate spring, which at the time when 
the Royal Court was held at the neighbouring Palace 
of Theobalds, was much resorted to, but it suffered 
the fate of similar places, and its medicinal qualities 
seem to have lost their virtues as soon as the spring 
ceased to be fashionable. The low wall, says 
Mr. Cussans (" History of Hertfordshire," 1881), 
which enclosed it has long since gone, and the spring 
itself, by subsoil draining around it, can now with 
difficulty be traced. Dr. Monro in his " Treatise on 
Mineral Waters" (1770), speaks of analyses made by 
Dr. Rutty 2 at Dublin of this and of the Barnet 
spring : there was not much difference between them, 

1 It is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey. In old 
manuscripts it is written Northeah, Northolt, Northaga and 
Northoe. In more modern books and documents North-Hall ; 
but this is a mere vulgar corruption. If Northeah is its proper 
designation it would signify the North Hill — if Northolt, the 
North Wood. (Cussans, " History of Hertfordshire : Hundred 
of Cashio," pp. 42-43.) 

2 Author of " Methodical Synopsis of Mineral Waters," 1757. 

155 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

but the latter was the stronger tasted of the two ; 
neither of them were very powerful. The Northaw 
water must have contained a considerable quantity 
of iron, as a favourite diversion of the inhabitants 
was to induce strangers to make tea with it. Though 
perfectly colourless, as soon as the boiling water was 
poured on the tea the iron combined with the tannin, 
and formed a kind of ink — as much to the astonish- 
ment of the tea-makers as to the delight of the 
practical jokers. 

Writers in the early years of the nineteenth century 
describe East Acton as a village situated on an 
eminence just off the Uxbridge Road and about five 
miles from Tyburn turnpike, near where the Marble 
Arch stands. At the south-west corner of the Old 
Oak Common, by Wormwood Scrubs, in the angle 
between the Great Western and the Midland and 
South- Western Junction Railways, stood Acton Wells 
House, in the garden of which were three springs 
of mineral water that attracted attention as purging 
waters in the opening years of Queen Anne's reign. 
Bowack, in his "Antiquities of Middlesex" (1706), 
alludes to the famous mineral spring at East Acton. 
Lysons (1795) says: "The water is impregnated 
principally with calcareous glauber salt, and is sup- 
posed to be more powerfully cathartic than any in 
the kingdom of the same description, except that 
of Cheltenham. The quantity of salts in a pound 
weight (avoirdupois) of the Acton water is 44 grains." 
In the days when it was fashionable to drink the 
waters, East Acton and Friars Place (a small ad- 
jacent hamlet) were thronged with valetudinarians 
and pleasure-seekers of all ranks, some of whom 

156 




<■ 










w 

'«*' 








North-West London Wells and Spas 

came to reside here during the summer season. 
Dr. Macpherson says these wells were very fashion- 
able from about 1730 to 1790. An advertisement 
of July 3, 1 77 1, states: " By the recommendation 
of Physicians and the encouragement of the nobility 
and gentry Acton Wells are newly opened for the 
benefit of the public. Every Monday, Wednesday 
and Friday from Lady Day to Michaelmas, are public 
days for drinking the waters and breakfasting." 
Every subscriber for a whole family was charged 
a guinea a year, and every single subscriber half 
a guinea, for which they had the use of the New 
Room, and the water either on the spot or at 
home. Each non-subscriber had to pay is. for 
water and salts. The water was also supplied in 
casks at 3d. per quart. It was on sale by agents in 
Piccadilly,;Pall Mall, Ludgate Hill, and at "Mr. Owen's 
original mineral water warehouse in Fleet Street." 
Advertisements in much the same strain appeared 
from year to year, to most of which the name of 
C. W. Gardner, Proprietor, is affixed. One dated 
April 13, 1776, seems to foretell the closing of the 
springs at no distant date ; it informs the public that 
"as Mr. Owen finds the demand for the water very 
trifling, the sale is suspended to subscribers." The 
wells seem to have gone to decay before the end 
of the eighteenth century : the Ambulator for 1796 
states that the Assembly Room " being nearly in 
ruins is about to be converted into two tenements." 
When Mr. J. Norris Brewer was writing his "De- 
scriptive Survey of London and its Environs," about 
18 1 5, the Assembly-house was occupied as a boarding 
school. 

iS7 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Walford says in "Greater London " (1884) : "The 
site of these wells is still to be made out in the 
kitchen garden of a farmhouse near the Great 
Western Railway, and close to Old Oak Common." 
No print of the wells, he adds, is known to 
exist, and the place appears to have escaped 
notice in the satires and comedies of the day. 
They are, however, mentioned in Boyle's works 
and by Allen and Hofmann in their treatises on 
mineral waters. 

Acton Wells are shown, with a plan of the gardens, 
on Rocque's Map of London (1741-45) on the west 
side of Old Oak Common. On good modern maps 
a house called Well House is marked about three- 
quarters of a mile to the south of Willesden Junction, 
but whether it had any connection with the Wells 
is doubtful. There is a drawing of the Acton Wells 
Assembly Room, dated 1795, in a fine edition of 
Lysons' " Environs " at the Guildhall Library. 

The little brook called the Kilburn — Keelebourne 
{Keele, cold, and burn, brook), sometimes, especially 
in early documents, called the Cunebourne, 1 rose near 
West End, Hampstead. It was an affluent to the 
Westbourne, according to some, but others say that 
this stream, which is the same that passed southward 
to the Serpentine and emptied itself into the Thames 
at Chelsea, was called in its lower course the West- 
bourne. To the antiquary, the interest in Kilburn 

1 Howitt derived it from the German Kohle, coal-burn ; and 
it has been derived from the German Kiihl, cool-burn. A more 
romantic origin is from Kuhleborn, the evil spirit in the legend 
of Undine. 

158 



North- West London Wells and Spas 

will always be centred in the memory of its priory. 
The earliest mention of the locality is when a pious 
recluse named Godwyn retired here in the reign of 
Henry I., and built a cell or hermitage near the 
Kilburn rivulet, on a spot surrounded with wood. 
The lines in Spenser's " Faery Queen" might almost 
have been written to describe this little domicile : — 

u A little lowly hermitage it was, 

Down in a dale, hard by a forest side ; 
Far from resort of people, that did pass 

In traveill to and froe ; a little wyde 

There was an holy chappell edifyde ; 
Wherein the hermit dewly wont to say 

His holy things, each morn and eventyde ; 
Thereby a chrystall streame did gently play, 
Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway." 

The cell was close to the Watling Street, and the 
prospect of London was on the left to St. John's 
Wood, but in front and to the right the outlook 
was across the meadows from which the Kilburn 
ran towards Bayswater. Between the years 1128 
and 1134 Godwyn made over his hermitage to the 
conventual church of St. Peter, Westminster. The 
Abbot Herebert, and Osbert de Clare, the Prior, 
settled the hermitage and lands upon three pious 
maidens, Emma, Gunhilda, and Cristina, who are 
said to have been maids of honour to Queen Matilda, 
or Maud, consort of Henry I. Eventually Godwyn 
himself was made master-warden and guardian of 

o 

these ladies. The suppression of all religious houses 
under the yearly value of ^200, in the 28th year 
of Henry VIII. (1536-7), put an end to the existence 
of Kilburn Priory, as such, or, as it was described 

159 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

when surrendered to the commissioners — the ° Non- 
nerie of Kilnborne." 

Lambert, in his " History and Survey of London and 
its Environs" (1806), remarks: "There are now no 
remains of this building (i.e., Kilburn Priory), but the 
site of it is very distinguishable in the Abbey Field, 
near the tea-drinking house called Kilburn Wells." 
This, says Walford, who quotes the above in " Old 
and New London," " it would appear, must have been 
as nearly as possible at the top of what is now St. 
George's Terrace, close to the Kilburn Station of the 
London and North-Western Railway, on its northern 
side ; for when the railway was widened, about the 
year 1850, the labourers came upon the foundations 
of the Priory, and discovered tessellated tiles, some 
keys of Gothic pattern, and the clapper of a bell, 
together with human bones, denoting the presence 
of a cemetery." A contributor to Notes and Queries 
(3rd Series, vol. ix., 1866), describes the position of 
Kilburn Priory, which was small and unimposing, as 
standing " in the space between Priory Road and 
St. George's Road, and nearly behind No. 26 of the 
houses in the former locality. My informant," he 
continues, "now residing at Kilburn, was acquainted 
with an old lady, who died about 1845 at the age 
of eighty, who pointed out to him the place where 
the ruins of the Priory stood, and where, as a girl, 
she had played at hide-and-seek. The field was then 
denominated Abbey Field, and in its immediate 
vicinity there had been a burial-ground." 

In his description of Kilburn Wells, Mr. Wroth 
("London Pleasure Gardens") says that from the 
MS. history of Middlesex, quoted by Park, the spring 

160 



North- West London Wells and Spas 

would appear to have been discovered about 1742; 
the date over the reservoir containing the waters was, 
however, 17 14, and Walford (vol. v. p. 245) states 
that the spring was known before the end of the 
sixteenth century. 

The Bell Tavern, dating from about 1600, 
generally known as " Kilburn Wells," was the house 
to which the holiday folk of London used to resort to 
drink the mineral waters. It had large gardens, and 
is referred to as a place in some respects like Sadler's 
Wells in a " Dialogue between a Master and his 
Servant," by Richard Owen Cambridge, published 
in 1752; the lines run: — 

" Shall you prolong the midnight ball 
With costly supper at Vaux Hall, 
And yet prohibit earlier suppers 
At Kilburn, Sadler's Wells, or Kuper's ? " " 

A Dr. Hales is the first author to describe the 
waters of these wells. " The Spring," he says, "rises 
about twelve feet below the surface, and is enclosed 
in a brick reservoir of about five feet in diameter, 
surmounted by a cupola. The keystone of the arch 
over the doorway bears the date 17 14." The water 
was a mild purgative, milky in appearance, and had 
a bitterish taste, and was said to be more strongly 
impregnated with carbonic acid gas 2 than any other 
spring in England. It was also said to be specially 
prized by those who indulged in convivial potations. 

An analysis of the water was made in 1792 by 

1 Cuper's Gardens, Lambeth ; the water-entrance faced 
Somerset House. 

* The carbon dioxide of modern chemists. 

161 L 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Dr. Bliss, and another in 1804 by Mr. Godfrey 
Schmeisser ; the latter was published at the time 
in Vol. 82 of the Philosophical Transactions. 
These showed very different results, but in both 
the feature of note was the large proportion of 
magnesia present. 

In its halcyon days Kilburn Wells enjoyed almost 
as large a share of popularity as did Highbury Barn 
or Cremorne in more recent times. A prospectus 
from the Public Advertiser of July 3, 1773, speaks of 
Kilburn Wells as a " happy spot equally celebrated 
for its rural situation, and the acknowledged efficacy 
of its waters, and being most delightfully located 
near the site of the famous Abbey of Kilburn, on 
the Edgware Road, at an easy distance, being a 
morning's walk from the centre of the metropolis, 
two miles from Oxford Street ; the footway from 
Mary-bone across the fields still nearer." At this 
time the gardens were enlarged and improved and 
the house and offices repainted and beautified. The 
great room was said to be adapted to the use and 
amusement of the politest companies and fit either for 
music, dancing, or entertainments. The ballroom 
or Great Room, as represented in old engravings of 
the place, was in existence in the memory of persons 
living in the eighteen hundred and sixties. The old 
house to which the well and gardens were attached 
was taken down about 1863, and the present "Bell" 
public-house erected on the spot. The spring was in 
use certainly up to the year 1790, but not for medicinal 
purposes after about the first decade of the nineteenth 
century, but the "Old Bell," or "Kilburn Wells," as the 
place was generally denominated, enjoyed popularity as 

162 



North- West London Wells and Spas 

a tea-garden as late as 1829. Dr. John Macpherson, 
the author of a work on the mineral waters of the 
British Islands, writing about the year 1871, says: 
"A recent visit to Kilburn induces me to think 
that its well has lost most of its salts." The waters 
were said to be strongly impregnated with carbonic 
acid gas (carbon dioxide). 

The exact site of the well was at the back of the 
present buildings of the London and South-Western 
Bank, which stands at the corner of the High Road 
and Belsize Road. On the Bank building is a tablet 
stating that " On this site was situated the Kilburn 
Wells." A member of the Committee of the Kilburn 
Public Library, who has resided in the neighbourhood 
for many years, saw the actual well of mineral water, 
with the stone steps and the flat tiles, when the ground 
was being prepared for the Bank building, some ten 
or twelve years ago (about 1895). He concludes 
that the spring was cut off by the London and North- 
Western Railway Company about 1834. There 
seems to be no record of when ^the well ceased to 
be used as a medicinal water, but probably not after 
1818.1 

The best if not the only view extant of the con- 
ventual buildings is an etching executed in the year 
1722, a copy of which is in Lysons' " Environs of 
London," vol. ii., Part III., 1795. It represents a 
small barn-like structure, supported by heavy but- 
tresses, the only ecclesiastical feature about it being 
the pointed arch of the doorway. 

1 Partly derived from information kindly furnished by Mr. 
James A. Seymour, Librarian of the Kilburn Public Library 
(1907). 

163 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

The following analyses of water from the Kilburn 
mineral spring are taken from Park's " Topography 
of Hampstead" (1814), pp. 65, 66. It will be 
noticed that they differ considerably :— 



Analysis made by Dr. John 
Bliss in 1792. 

Oxyde of iron, not appreciable 

Grs. per Gal. 

Carbonate of lime 
Carbonate of magnesia 
Extractive matter 
Muriate of magnesia 
Muriate of lime . 
Muriate of soda 
Sulphate of soda 
Sulphate of magnesia 
Sulphate of lime 
Insoluble . 




Gaseous contents : 

Carbonic acid gas 
Common air . 



Cubic In. 
18 

5*5 



Contents in a gallon . 23-5 



Analysis made by Mr. Godfrey 

SCHMEISSER IN 1804.' 

Grains. 

Calyx of iron (Iron Oxide) 3& 

Aerated calcareous earth 
(Calcium Carbonate) . 

Aerated magnesia (Mag- 
nesium Carbonate) 

Selenite (Hydrated cal- 
cium sulphate) . 

Miniated magnesia (Mag- 
nesium chloride) . 

Muriated calcareous earth 
(Calcium Chloride) 

Muriated natron (Sodium 
Chloride) . 

Vitriolated natron (So- 
dium Sulphate) . 
Vitriolated magnesia 
(Magnesium Sulphate) 
Resinous matter 



24 

130 
128 



60 
282 
9IO 

6 



Gaseous contents : 

Cubic In. 

Hepatic air (Sulphuretted 

Hydrogen) . (near) 36 
Fixed air (Carbon Dioxide) 84 
Contents in 24 lbs. 



* The modern terms inserted between the brackets in this 
analysis have been added for the sake of clearness. 



164 



CHAPTER VII 

WEST LONDON GROUP OF WELLS AND SPAS 

Marylebone Gardens and medicinal spring — Known as Marybone 
Spa — Mentioned in J. T. Smith's " Book for a Rainy 
Day " — Powis Wells in Lamb's Conduit Fields — Assemblies 
for dancing held in Long Room — Kensington Wells — 
St. Govor's Well — St. Agnes' Well of medicinal water — 
Frequented chiefly by the lower orders — Medicinal spring 
at Earl's Court mentioned by Faulkner. 

MARYLEBONE Gardens, or, as commonly 
called, Marybone Gardens, were situated on 
the east side of the High Street, opposite to the 
old parish church of St. Mary-le- Bourne. They 
formed part of the garden belonging to the old 
Manor House, originally built in the reign of 
Henry VIII., which, during the time it was vested 
in the Crown, was occasionally used as a royal 
residence, particularly by Queen Elizabeth. The 
gardens were detached from the Manor House 
in 1650 : the house, a Tudor building of some 
distinction, had been occupied as a boarding school 
from 1703 and was pulled down in 1791, and Devon- 
shire Mews was built on the site. The whole 
extent of the original gardens was about 8 acres : 
this included a large bowling-green, stated in the 
Gentleman s Magazine for 181 3 (Part i. p. 524) to 

165 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

be 1 1 2 paces one way and 88 another. The ground 
covered by the gardens comprised the sites of Devon- 
shire Place, and portions of Beaumont Street, Devon- 
shire Street, and Upper Wimpole Street, extending as 
far eastward as Harley Street ; the southern boundary 
was Weymouth Street — then called Bowling Green 
Lane. 1 

Pepys writes of these gardens in 1668 in his own 
quaint manner : " Then we abroad to Marrowbone, 
and there walked in the garden ; the first time I ever 
was there, and a pretty place it is." 

As a place of amusement of the Vauxhall type the 
gardens date practically from 1738, but the Maryle- 
bone garden and bowling-green came into existence at 
a much earlier period. 

Mr. J. T. Smith's " Book for a Rainy Day " contains 
much curious information about the Marylebone 
Gardens, and details of the fetes, balls, and concerts, 
which were held during the run of the season, are to 
be found in the papers of the day. When the gardens 
were in a flourishing state, selections from Handel's 
music were often played here under the direction of 
Dr. Arne, the singers and instrumentalists including 
some of the best performers of that time. 

In 1755 was published an engraving, after a drawing 
made by J. Donnowell, representing these gardens, 
probably in their fullest splendour. 2 " The centre of 
this view exhibits the longest walk, with regular rows 
of young trees on either side, the stems of which 
received the irons for the lamps at about the height of 

1 " The Garden at Marylebone Park " (from Memoranda by 
Samuel Sainthill, 1659). 

2 Crace Catalogue, p. 566, No. 74. 

166 



West London Group of Wells and Spas 

seven feet from the ground. On either side of this 
walk were latticed alcoves ; on the right hand stood 
the bow-fronted orchestra, with balustrades supported 
by columns. Over this erection the roof was extended 
considerably to keep the musicians and singers free 
from rain. On the left hand of the walk was a room, 
possibly for balls and suppers. The figures in this 
view are well drawn and characteristic of the period." 

In the winter of 1773-74, in the course of a 
search made under the direction of the City Surveyor 
for the City wells, a medicinal spring was discovered 
in the gardens. In the year 1774 the Managers of 
the gardens advertised and opened (June 6th) the 
Marybone Spa. The public were admitted to drink 
the water from six o'clock in the morning, when tea, 
coffee, and other refreshments were also obtainable. 
The waters were supposed to promote a healthy 
appetite and a good digestion, besides being considered 
highly useful in nervous, scorbutic, and other 
disorders. 

The end of Marybone Gardens as an open-air resort 
was now not very long deferred. About 1778 the 
site of the gardens was let for building purposes and 
the formation of streets was begun. The present 
Marylebone Music Hall fronts the High Street, and 
stands on the site of the old Rose of Normandy x 
Tavern, from which the gardens were entered. The 
grounds were, however, opened again for a short time 
in 1794, a sort of last expiring flicker. Some of the 
trees, under which the company promenaded and 

1 The " Rose of Normandy " (with a skittle alley at the back) 
existed, little altered, till 1848-50, when a new tavern was 
built on its site. 

167 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

listened to the strains of music, are still standing 
behind the houses in Upper Wimpole Street. 

At a bazaar held in the Portman Rooms, Baker 
Street, in 1887 (November 22-26), for the benefit of 
the charities of Marylebone Church, an ingenious 
reproduction was devised, under the direction of Mr. 
Thomas Harris, the architect, of the latticed alcoves, 
lamp-hung trees, &c, of the old Marybone Gardens. 
An account of the representation is given in " A 
Booke of ye old Marybone Gardens," 1887 (sold at the 
Bazaar). 

In Lamb's Conduit Fields, by the Foundling 
Hospital, and at the back of Powis House, 1 which 
stood near the north-west end of Great Ormond 
Street, was a small spring of mineral water called 
Powis Well, with a house of entertainment and 
pleasure walks, which were "much frequented on 
account of the water being good for several dis- 
tempers, particularly for the eyes." The spring 
must have been discovered and in use some time 
before 172 1, as may be inferred from the following 
reference to it. The Weekly Journal for January 
17, 172 1, records an accident occurring here by 
which a man was drowned : " Tuesday morning 
last happened a very odd and deplorable accident ; 
a man going to a little spring at the back of Lord 
Powis's house, in Lamb's Conduit Fields, to which 
there is a great resort on account of its being reported 
good in several impurities ; stooping to wash his 
eyes, as 'tis supposed, he fell headlong in and was 
suffocated." Another reference to the spring or well 

1 The first house was burnt down, 17 14, and rebuilt the same 
or the next year. In 1777 this latter building was taken down. 

168 



West London Group of Wells and Spas 

occurs in a rare little book I called " Remarks on 
London," &c, &c, by W. Stow, printed in 1722, 
" for T. Norris at the ' Looking-glass,' and H. 
Tracy at the 'Three Bibles,' on London Bridge" : — 

" Ormond Street, by Queen's Square — Here is a 
stately Stone House, belonging to 'Squire Herbert, 
called Lord Powiss ; and behind it is a well whose 
water is reckon'd Medicinal for sore Eyes." 

An advertisement dated August 4, 1748 (the name 
of the newspaper does not appear) announces that — 
"The Long Room at Powis Wells by Lamb's Con- 
duit will be opened for the Summer Season, with 
an assembly of Country Dancing. To begin on 
Monday next. Tickets to be had at the said Wells 
at two shilings each. The doors to be opened at 
four o'clock. There will be good Musick and good 
accommodations." Another advertisement (of 1754) 
is in these terms : " Powis Wells by the Foundling 
Hospital. — These waters are now in their full per- 
fection. They are of a sweetening, diuritic, and 
gently purging quality, and are recommended by 
many eminent Physicians and Surgeons for the cure 
of breakings out, sore legs, inflammation of the eyes, 
and other scorbutic and leprous disorders, &c. 
Those who send for these waters are desired to 
take notice that the Bottles are sealed upon the 
cork with the words 'Powis Wells Water.'" 

The wells are marked on Rocque's map. 

Kensington could boast of several medicinal springs, 
with waters of more or less potency. Faulkner, in his 
"History of Kensington" (1820), says: "The first 
mention of the mineral spring and wells house, 

1 This reference was kindly furnished by Mr. Philip Norman. 

169 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

which stood on the site of the present Notting Hill 
House, occurs in the year 1698." This house was 
the manor-house of Notting Hill, and was later 
renamed Aubrey House, perhaps from Aubrey de 
Vere, who was lord of the manor of Kensington in 
the eleventh century. Notting Hill forms part of 
Kensington parish and manor. The Rev. W. J. 
Loftie in his "Picturesque and Historical Kensing- 
ton" (1888) describes the present house as having 
some old features about it. His book contains a 
view of the house and garden, which are shut in 
from observation by a high wall, and very little 
can be seen from Holland Walk, so that many 
people constantly pass the house and never know 
of its existence. It is bounded on the west by 
Holland Park, and on the north-east by some of 
the gardens of the " Dukeries." Before Faulkner's 
time the place was occupied by George de Vismes, 
and was celebrated for its chalybeate wells. There 
was some idea of establishing a Spa here. It was 
then — about 1838 — the property of Sir Edward 
Pryce Lloyd, afterwards the first Baron Mostyn. 
The wells were under the successive proprietorships 
of Dr. Wright and partners in 1699, a Mr. 
Town in 1720, and in 1721 a Mr. Reid appears 
to have been in possession. The house (not the 
present one) and wells were for some years places 
of considerable public resort, but after the last- 
named year no further mention is made of them 
in the parish books. Bowack (" History of Middle- 
sex," 1705) alludes to the springs as in great esteem 
in that year. Two wells are marked on Rocque's 
map (1746). 

17c 




2 3 

1 ■§; 

a o 

« o 



West London Group of Wells and Spas 

The writer is indebted to Mr. W. Cleverley 
Alexander for kindly supplying the following par- 
ticulars as to the position of the wells. He says : 
"When I took the house (i.e., Aubrey House) 
thirty years ago (about 1874), there was a well 
under the west wing of the house, which had been 
built about a hundred years, and a second well 
at the east end of the house. Both were polluted, 
and I had them filled up." The springs contained 
Epsom or Glauber salts, like other aperient waters 
with which London was so amply supplied. 

There were three other springs in the neigh- 
bourhood, two of which were, at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century, in Hyde Park. The third, 
in Kensington Gardens, is the only one now existing. 
It lies a little to the south of the Round Pond, not 
far from the Palace. It is called St. Govor's Well, 
from the name of a saint who founded a church in 
Monmouthshire, named Llanover, near Abergavenny. 
The name is said to have been given to the well 
in honour of the owner of the parish in Monmouth- 
shire, Sir Benjamin Hall, created Lord Llanover. 
He was for three years — 1855-58 — First Commis- 
sioner of Public Works in London, and it may 
have been during his term of office that the well 
was in charge of an old woman who, for a trifling 
sum, supplied glassfuls of the water to wayfarers. 
Mr. Loftie : says the water of St. Govor's Well 
does not deserve the reputation it acquired for 
purity, as it is loaded with organic matter. The 
other well of medicinal water, called St. Agnes' 

1 " Kensington, Picturesque and Historical," W. J. Loftie, 
1888. 

171 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Well, was near the east bank of the Serpentine at 
its head, a part which used to be called Buckden 
Hill, overlooking the waterworks, reservoirs, and 
fountain. Buck Hill Walk and Gate are reminders 
of a time when there was a deer paddock here. 
It must be the well of St. Agnes that Sir Richard 
Phillips describes in "Modern London" (1804-05): 
"In the north-west corner of Hyde Park, beneath 
a row of trees, running parallel with the keeper's 
garden, are two springs, greatly resorted to : one is 
a mineral and is drunk ; the other is used to bathe 
weak eyes with. At the former, in fine weather, 
sits a woman, with a table and chair and glasses 
for the accommodation of visitors. People of 
fashion often go in their carriages to the entrance 
of this enclosure, which is more than a hundred 
yards from the first spring, and send their servants 
with jugs for the water, and sometimes send their 
children to drink at the spring. The brim of the 
further spring is frequently surrounded with persons, 
chiefly of the lower order, bathing their eyes. The 
water is constantly clear, from the vast quantity 
the spring casts up, and its continually running off 
by an outlet from a small square reservoir." 

Faulkner l mentions a medicinal spring at Earl's 
Court as in his time still retaining the name of 
Billing's Well, after a former proprietor. 

1 " History and Antiquities of Kensington," Thomas 
Faulkner, 1820. 



172 



CHAPTER VIII 

MINERAL SPRINGS AS REMEDIAL AGENTS 

Thermal waters : their temperature, whence derived — The 
mineral matter they contain — British and foreign waters 
compared — Analysis in its application to mineral waters 
very imperfectly understood before the nineteenth century. 

THE use of mineral springs as remedial agents 
for certain diseases, either in the form of 
draughts or of baths, goes back to a very early 
period. Remains of Roman work have been found 
at most of the European baths which are now in 
favour — at almost all the thermal ones. Some of 
the Greek sanctuaries of /Esculapius had healing 
thermae, or springs, near them, and the physicians 
of that country had great faith in their curative 
power. 1 In "The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," 2 
Dennis mentions many sites of ancient hot baths, 
some still in use, notably the Bagni di Ferrata, three 
miles east of Civita Vecchia, the hot springs lauded 
by Rutilius under the name of Thermae Tauri, and 
mentioned by Pliny as the " Aquenses cognomine 
Taurini," in his Catalogue of Roman Colonies in 

1 "The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks," Alice Zimmern, 
1893, P- 242. 
3 Revised edition, 1878, vol. i. p. 299. 

*73 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Etruria. "They are still," adds Mr. Dennis, "much 
resorted to by the citizens of Rome during the 
summer." 

Luchon, the most frequented of the Pyrennean 
watering-places, has been the resort of invalids and 
"malades imaginaires " from the days when Roman 
emperors drank these waters and Fabia Festa paid 
her vow to the god Lixon (giving the name of 
Luchon to the little town built near the rocks, whence 
the healing waters flowed) to the present time. 1 

Occasionally new springs are discovered in new 
countries, but the majority of them have long been 
known. In London, the rediscovery of medicinal 
springs, the sites of which had been forgotten, is 
pointed out by modern writers as having taken place 
in some instances. 

There is much in the observation of the elder 
Pliny in his "Natural History," that the quality of the 
constituents of mineral water depends upon the nature 
of the soil through which the water passes. Thus 
in limestone and chalk districts an excess of lime is 
usually present, and where iron abounds in the rock 
the water becomes to a Greater or less extent im- 
pregnated with it. The natural warmth of the thermal 
springs was, in accordance with the tendency of the age, 
ascribed by the ancients to a special mystical power, 
and the effect of the waters upon the human body 
could only be imperfectly explained by the poorest 
chemical analysis. The source of the temperature 
of thermal waters remains a subject of much un- 

1 "The Pyrenees," Henry Blackburn, ed. 1881. Luchon, 
or Bagneres-de- Luchon (the Balneariae Lixonienses of the 
Romans), department of Haute Garonne. 

174 



Mineral Springs as Remedial Agents 

certainty : among the assigned causes are the internal 
heat of the globe, or the development of heat by 
chemical or electrical agencies in the strata through 
which they pass. Mineral springs, which are found 
in all quarters of the globe, are most abundant in 
volcanic regions, where many salts of soda and much 
carbonic acid are present. Hot water, it is well 
known, has a greater power of dissolving solids than 
cold water, consequently hot — thermal — springs are 
often largely permeated with mineral substances. The 
more important of these in a therapeutic sense are 
sodium, magnesium, and calcium compounds, sulphur, 
carbon dioxide, sulphuric acid, and iron. Mineral 
waters, in fact, consist of weaker or stronger solutions 
of salts and gases in water of higher or lower tem- 
perature, but the quantity of salts present commonly 
bears a very small proportion to that of the fluid 
containing them, though this proportion varies con- 
siderably. In common spring water the proportion 
of mineral matter held in solution may vary from 50 
to 400 or 500 parts in every million parts, but in 
districts where water is " hard " the proportion may 
rise to 2,000 parts in every million. In mineral springs 
the proportion is of course very much greater. Thus, 
in the Vichy waters the solid contents are more than 
5,000 to every million, those of Piillna, in Bohemia, 
more than six times the latter amount. 

The analysis of mineral waters is only a product 
of the nineteenth century. In the sixteenth century 
physicians began to evaporate mineral waters and to 
try other experiments to discover their qualities, and 
to procure the solid bodies they contained, but the 
progress of their researches was very slow till, in 

175 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

the seventeenth century, societies for the advance- 
ment of natural knowledge were established in London, 
Paris, and other places in Europe. Excepting as 
a rough-and-ready note of the ingredients, the early 
analyses are quite unreliable, analytical chemistry 
being then very imperfectly understood. Analysis 
in the present sense of the word, i.e., a true qualitative 
and quantitative determination of the ingredients dis- 
solved in various waters, and of the gases contained 
in them, did not exist before the third decade of the 
nineteenth century, and was first established by 
Berzelius and Struve. 

Of the English sulphated or bitter waters, containing 
sulphates of sodium and magnesium, those near 
London, of Kilburn, Barnet, Northaw, Sydenham, 
Beulah, and Streatham, were all at one time (chiefly 
in the last half of the seventeenth and first half of 
the eighteenth centuries) much employed, those of 
Streatham until quite recently ; in the eighteen 
hundred and fifties they were sold in London in large 
pitchers containing three or four quarts, and even now 
there is a limited sale for them. 1 In Charles II.'s 
reign such waters were, we learn, taken at the wells 
early in the morning, as laxative saline waters are 
now taken at foreign spas. The English purging 
waters were in old times usually either drunk warm or 
mixed with milk or made into possets. Amongst the 
iron or chalybeate springs near London, the following 
were well known : Dulwich ; Hampstead ; Shadwell ; 
a spring near the Tower of London ; Sadler's Wells, 
Islington Spa, or the New Tunbridge Wells, both at 
Islington ; Hoxton, and Bermondsey. All wells 

1 Julius Braun, " Handbook to the Spas of Europe," 1875. 

176 



Mineral Springs as Remedial Agents 

having the least taste of iron perceptible in them 
have been called chalybeates. Iron usually exists in 
waters in the state of the protoxide, or carbonate, 
less frequently in that of the sulphate, and very rarely, 
if at all, in that of the chloride. The quantity of 
iron present is usually extremely small, varying from 
•12 to '03 in the 1,000 parts of water. Some wells 
considered distinct chalybeates contain even less than 
the latter proportion. Iron waters are scarcely ever 
thermal. They are extremely common in all countries, 
and frequently contain sulphuretted hydrogen, which 
occurs in solution in bogs. They are also common 
near coal-measures. 

It is often lamented that this country is flooded with 
importations of German and other Continental waters, 
both for medicinal and table use, to the neglect and 
exclusion of our native waters. The answer to this 
is that British waters are by no means neglected ; 
those of them which can be classified in point of 
efficiency with their foreign counterparts have an 
ample home patronage. Of the earthy mineral waters, 
those of Bath may be classed with Baden and Con- 
tr^xeville, as the best-known springs of that type. 
Among the stronger of the saline waters, used for 
bathing, Droitwich, Saratoga, and Nauheim may be 
grouped together. Iron salts are present in the waters 
of Spa, Pyrmont, St. Moritz, Tunbridge Wells, and 
Homburg. Harrogate is the most celebrated for its 
sulphur wells, of which it possesses very strong and 
very weak ones ; it can be named with Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Baden, and Aix-les-Bains. 

The purgative waters of this country are, however, 
not to be compared for strength with those of Fried- 

177 M 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

richshall, Ofen (Buda), Kissengen, and other springs 
of this class on the Continent, unless the waters of 
Woodhall Spa, in Lincolnshire, be excepted. 

It should be borne in mind that a course of mineral 
waters is largely dependent for its success on the im- 
portant concomitants of a complete change of environ- 
ment, climate, diet, and simplicity in the mode of living, 
and that these changes contribute greatly to the cure 
for which the water often gets the sole credit. With- 
out a thorough change for the time being in the 
habits and manner of living, and strict attention to 
the regimen of the health resort, it is impossible to 
obtain the full measure of benefit. 

London was abundantly supplied with aperient 
waters, but in all cases it was necessary to drink them 
in large quantities — the system had to be drenched 
with them — and this may be a reason for their having 
been given up. Those near London were necessarily 
disused when the neighbourhood became built over, 
and when they could no longer be looked upon as 
situated in the country, and consequently could not 
provide the change of air and scene offered by more 
distant spas, such as Cheltenham and Leamington, 
which sprang up and eclipsed the popularity of those 
near the metropolis. 



178 



PART II 

STREAMS AND SPAS SOUTH OF 
THE THAMES 



CHAPTER I 

THE EFFRA, FALCON BROOK, AND NECKINGER 

South London : physical features — Effra River — John Aubrey 
makes no mention of it — Brayley's allusion to it — Tracing 
of its entire course — Branch of the Effra near Kennington 
Church — Another arm of the Effra — Falcon Brook — 
The Neckinger Stream : its rise and course — Navigable 
for small craft — Tanneries and mills on its banks — St. 
Saviour's Dock. 

IN taking up a relief map of South London one 
cannot fail to note the great expanse of marsh 
land, the river-flat, which extends from the clay valley 
of the Beverley Brook on the west to the Ravens- 
bourne on the east, a distance of about ten miles, by a 
width varying from about one and a half to four miles. 
Except for the slightly higher gravel of Wandsworth 
Common, there is no rising ground until the gentle 
ascent, the beginning of the Surrey hills which can 
be observed from the high roads of Clapham, Brixton, 
and Camberwell. 

The first chapter of Besant's " South London " 
(1899) contains a striking word-picture of the condi- 
tion of this great tidal marsh in early times, long ages 
before any attempt had been made to reclaim it by 
drainage and other modern means. No cliffs on this 
side overhung the river as on its northern side, on 

181 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

which the earliest London (pre-Roman) subsequently 
rose. Like most swampy places, it was the home 
of many water-plants, of which, in later times, Gerarde 
in his " Herball " (1597) mentions that the hedgehog 
grass grew in wet ditches close to Paris Garden 
Bridge and in St. George's Fields, and that the 
frog-bit (hydrocharis morsus-rance) might be found 
floating in almost every pool ; he speaks too of the 
crowfoot in the lakes and slowly-running or standing 
waters. At low tide numerous streams might be seen 
crossing this marsh on their way into the Thames, 
though when the tide was up their beds became 
indistinguishable among the shallows. Among the 
larger of these streams — to use the names by which 
they were afterwards known — were the Wandle, the 
Falcon, the Effra, the Neckinger, and the Ravens- 
bourne, besides others which have disappeared and 
left no name. The first and last mentioned still exist 
above-ground, but the Effra, Falcon Brook, and 
Neckinger are no longer visible, except that the 
mouth of the latter forms a small dock, called St. 
Saviour's Dock, at Bermondsey. 

The Effra is an interesting stream because, until 
within the last fifty years or so, it ran, an open, clear, 
and sparkling brook, over a gravelly bottom through 
the Dulwich fields, and supplied fresh water to the 
neighbourhood. The bed of part of its course could be 
seen a few years ago, though only for some half-mile 
of its windings, and these through a valley not then 
handed over to the builder. 

A few words as to its past : there were traditions 
that King Cnut with his fleet sailed up the Effra as 
far as Brixton, for the Effra was to South London 

182 



The Effra, Falcon Brook, and Neckinger 

what the Fleet was to the north — a brook winding 
among the fields at the foot of the low Surrey hills. 
Aubrey, in his "Natural History and Antiquities of 
Surrey " (commenced 1673), has no reference to the 
Effra. Brayley, 1 speaking of Kennington Church- 
yard, says : " On the south side is a small stream 
called Effra, over which was a bridge that was repaired 
by the Canons of Merton Abbey, to whom lands 
had been devised for the purpose. This rivulet takes 
its rise in the upper part of the Brixton District [this 
is wrong, as it really rose in the hills of Norwood], 
and flowing along the eastern side of the highway, 
has been partly arched over, for the convenience of 
access to the new ranges of houses that have been 
built there." Again he alludes to it in speaking 
of Claylands, an estate near the Kennington Oval, 
saying : " Claylands is bounded on the north by 
the Effra." Unfortunately, in trying to trace its 
course from maps, there is not much help to be got. 
On Rocque's map there is a stream, apparently 
intended for the Effra, but which is named " The 
Shore." In a map of 1753, 2 it is shown falling into 
the Thames a little to the eastward of Vauxhall 
Bridge. 

An old inhabitant of Stockwell, who could look 
back some fifty years with a fresh memory, sometime 
in the year 1891 traversed the ground through which 
the Effra formerly flowed, in company with a repre- 
sentative of the South London Press. Parts of his 

1 " History of Surrey," vol, iii. pp. 362-3 ; date of vol. i., 
1841. 

2 This map is reproduced by the Rev. H. H. Montgomery, 
" History of Kennington," 1889. 

183 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

description of its course are here embodied. To 
speak of the Effra as a river, he confessed, was an 
extravagance, for in point of fact the "river" partook 
more of the character of a moderately capacious 
stream, consisting" mainly of the surface water arising 
in the higher ground of Norwood and the then agri- 
cultural neighbourhood of Brockwell and Heme Hill. 
The Effra was, at all events, a troublesome stream in 
the lower levels of Stockwell and Kennington, for a 
downfall of rain, even of a moderate character, would 
flood the basements of the houses hereabouts. 

As to the course taken by the stream after running 
by the side of Croxted Lane, Dulwich, there is clear 
evidence of the former existence of the Effra from 
Norwood Road, which adjoins Half Moon Lane ; but 
here for the nonce all traces of the stream are elimi- 
nated. There was a very pronounced bend between 
the point now occupied by the railway bridge (at 
Heme Hill Station) and the entrance of Dulwich 
Road, when the Effra pursued a straight course for 
half a mile or so, skirting the park of Brockwell 
House on its north-east side. Near the bottom of 
the slope of Brockwell Park, along the Norwood Road 
side, there can, or could recently, be seen the bed of 
a streamlet that ran into the Effra just opposite to 
where the park gates now are. This accounts for the 
valley along which the tramway to Norwood now runs. 

A lady writing from No. 32, Tulse Hill, in August, 
1 89 1, to a local newspaper, said the Effra once flowed 
at the foot of the garden of that house, and that its 
banks might be traced for some little distance in the 
new road (Leander Road) leading out of Josephine 
Avenue, Water Lane. 

184 



The Effra, Falcon Brook, and Neckinger 

Coming to the Brixton end of the Dulwich Road its 
course is more difficult to define, but it is clear that 
it meandered through Rush Common, which was 
between Dulwich and Coldharbour Lane, and took 
its course in the direction of Saltoun Road. Even- 
tually it emerged at the point now occupied by the 
Atlantic Road, near Brixton Station, and then striking 
across in the direction of Pope's Road, it entered the 
Brixton Road at the corner of Canterbury Road. 
Here it became larger — its average size in the main 
road was about 12 feet wide and 6 feet deep. Its 
course was through the forecourts of the houses 
on the Camberwell, or east, side of the thoroughfare, 
access to the houses being gained by little bridges. 
On reaching St. Mark's Church, Kennington, it took 
an abrupt turn, crossed Clapham Road, and passing 
along the south side of the Oval, emerged at Vauxhall, 
where it passed under a bridge called Cox's Bridge, 
falling into the Thames a little to the eastward of 
Vauxhall Bridge. 

A branch of the Effra parted from the main stream 
just before Kennington Church was reached, and 
bending in a northerly direction towards the South 
Lambeth Road, flowed along the lane leading by the 
side of the present Vauxhall Park to the Crown 
Building Works of Messrs. Higgs and Hill, at the 
corner of Lawn Lane, turning almost at right angles 
up the South Lambeth Road towards Vauxhall Cross. 
Another arm of the Effra forms a piece of ornamental 
water in the grounds of " Belair," l one of the noted 
maisons grandes of Dulwich, in the Gallery Road. 

1 Built by Adams (of Adelphi fame) in 1780. 
185 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

The Effra Road, from Water Lane to the Brixton 
Road, serves to keep the name in remembrance. 

The Falcon Brook, another vanished London river, 
rising on the south side of Balham Hill, flowed almost 
due north between Clapham and Wandsworth Common 
to Battersea Rise, which it crossed. Turning abruptly 
to the west, it ran along Lavender Road, crossed the 
York Road, and discharged itself into the Thames by 
Battersea Creek, which is all that now remains of 
the little river, except the underground sewer which 
passes along its former course. Its name is preserved 
in the Falcon Road, leading, by Ingrave Street, to 
the Creek, and in a modern public-house, which sup- 
planted the original " Falcon," a somewhat rustic 
building which harmonised well with its surroundings, 
which were of quite a rural character. 

" In the last quarter of the eighteenth century," 
writes Robert Chambers, in his " Book of Days," 
"there flourished at the corner of the lane leading 
from the Wandsworth Road to Battersea Bridge a 
tavern yclept 'The Falcon,' kept by one Robert 
Death — a man whose figure is said to have ill com- 
ported with his name, seeing that it displayed the 
highest appearance of jollity and good condition." 
But Mr. Death has long since submitted to his mighty 
namesake; " The Falcon" is gone, and the very place 
can scarcely be distinguished among the spreading 
streets which now occupy these parts. 

The waterside division of Bermondsey, or that part 
of the parish situate east of St. Saviour's Dock, and 
adjoining the parish of Rotherhithe, is intersected by 

1 86 



The Effra, Falcon Brook, and Neckinger 

several streams or watercourses. One of these — the 
Neckinger (or Neckenger) — rose at the foot of Den- 
mark Hill and adjacent parts, and after passing in 
two streams under the Old Kent Road, united north 
of it, and reached the Thames at St. Saviour's Dock, 
which, in fact, is the enlarged mouth of the old river. 
Besides the bridge which spanned it at the Grange 
Farm, there was another where it crossed the Old 
Kent Road, near the spot where the Albany Road 
joins the latter road. This bridge was known as 
Thomas-a-Watering, from St. Thomas, the patron of 
the dissolved monastery, or hospital, of that name in 
South wark. It was the most southern point of the 
boundary of the Borough of South wark, and in ancient 
days the first halting-place out of London on the road 
into Kent. Chaucer's pilgrims passed it on their way 
to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury : 

"And forth we riden, a litel moore then paas, 
Unto the wateryng of Seint Thomas, 
And there our Hoost bigan his hors areste." T 

The Neckinger was formerly navigable for small 
craft from the Thames to the precincts of Bermondsey 
Abbey, and gives name to the Neckinger Road, which 
is at a short distance southward of Jacob's Island 2 (a 

1 Prologue to " Canterbury Tales." 

2 " London," Chas. Knight, 1842, vol. iii. p. 20. Here is a 
short account of the "Island": "Jacob's Island — formed by 
a stream, about 20 feet wide, which entirely encircles a cluster 
of mean and dilapidated houses, to which access is gained by 
about a dozen wooden bridges from the ' terra firma ' on the 
other side of the stream. This stream is bounded on the four 
sides by Mill Street, Bermondsey Wall, Nutkin's Court, and 

187 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

spot rendered familiar in the pages of one of Dickens's 
most popular works, "Oliver Twist"), and connecting 
Abbey Street with the Spa Road. When the abbey 
was destroyed, and the ground passed into the pos- 
session of others, the houses which were built on the 
site still received a supply of water from this water- 
course. In process of time tanneries were established 
here, most probably on account of the supply of fresh 
water obtainable every twelve hours from the river. 
" There appears reason to believe," says Charles 
Knight, 1 in his " London," "that the Neckinger was 
by degrees made to supply other ditches, or small 
watercourses, cut in different directions, and placed in 
communication with it ; for, provided they were all 
nearly on a level, each high tide would as easily fill 
half a dozen as a single one. Had there been no 
mill at the mouth of the channel the supply might 
have gone on continuously ; but the mill continued to 
be moved by the stream, and to be held by parties 
who neither had nor felt any interest in the affairs of 
the Neckinger manufacturers. Disagreements thence 
arose, and towards the end of the last century (eigh- 
teenth) the tanners of the central parts of Bermondsey 
instituted a suit against the owner of the mill for 
shutting off the tide when it suited his own purpose 
so to do, to the detriment of the leather manufacturers. 
The ancient usages of the district were brought for- 
ward in evidence, and the result was that the right 
of the inhabitants to a supply of water from the river, 

London Street, and from the east end of the latter 'Jacob's 
Island' can best be seen. The ditch becomes filled with water 
at every high tide." 

1 " London," Chas. Knight, 1842, vol. ill. pp. 20 and 21. 

188 



The Efrra, Falcon Brook, and Neckinger 

at every high tide, was confirmed, to the discomfiture 
of the mill-owner. Many of the largest establishments 
in Bermondsey were for years dependent on the tide- 
stream for the water required in the manufacture of 
leather. Other manufacturers, however, constructed 
artesian wells on their premises, while the mill at the 
mouth of the stream was worked by steam-power, so 
that the channel itself became much less important 
than in former times. Latterly this ditch, or ' tide- 
stream,' as it was sometimes called, was under the 
management of commissioners, consisting of the prin- 
cipal manufacturers, who were empowered to levy a 
small rate for its maintenance and repair." 

In "Inns of Old Southwark" (Rendle and Norman, 
1888) it is suggested that Neckenger was probably a 
place of execution, for the prior and monks of Ber- 
mondsey had extensive rights under their charters, 
among the rest Infangthef — the right to catch, judge, 
and punish a thief caught in their manor, and the 
punishment was most commonly the gallows. The 
spot afterwards known as the Devil's Neckenger 
had been of old the place of execution for the manor 
of Bermondsey. The "Devol's Neckenger" is shown 
on a map of 1740. 1 

1 Neckenger (the corrupt form of Neckercher) is an old word 
for a cravat, neck-cloth, or any other covering for the neck. 
Neckenger as a place of execution may possibly contain a grim 
allusion to the rope round the neck of a malefactor. 



189 



CHAPTER II 

SOUTH LONDON SPAS AND WELLS 

Bermondsey Spa — Opened by an artist, Thomas Keyse — Mr. 
William Herbert, one of the singers engaged here ; he 
afterwards became first librarian of the Guildhall Library — 
Gallery of Paintings by Keyse — Picture-model of siege of 
Gibraltar — Lambeth Wells — Dancing and musical enter- 
tainments — Water esteemed serviceable in disorders of 
the eyes — " Dog and Duck," otherwise St. George's Spa — 
Its career under Hedger — Old stone sign of the inn let into 
wall of Bethlehem Hospital — Lady well — Two wells here : 
one medicinal — Coping-stones preserved and form the rim 
of a drinking fountain at the Ladywell Public Baths — 
Shooter's Hill — Its height and structure — John Evelyn 
drinks the waters of the mineral spring here — Dipping 
Well on the top of the hill. 

TRAVELLERS by the Greenwich Railway are 
familiar with a station called Spa Road, in 
Bermondsey, but probably few of them could tell how 
it came by that name. About 600 yards east 
of the station, where the Grange Road intersects 
the Spa Road, a chalybeate spring was discovered 
about the year 1770, either in the grounds of the 
Waterman's Arms Tavern, or on some waste 
land adjoining, for at that time there were open 
fields stretching away to the Kent Road. The 
premises having become vacant were purchased 

190 



South London Spas and Wells 

about 1765, along with some grounds adjoining, by 
an artist, Mr. Thomas Keyse, who opened them as 
a place for tea-drinking. The spring, probably a 
weak chalybeate, may have helped to increase the 
attractions of the gardens, though the services of the 
proverbial physician seem not to have been invoked, 
and no analysis of the water appears to be on record. 
In fact Bermondsey was never a Spa, except in name, 
and it is probable that Keyse was not long in 
recognising this. In 1784 he obtained a licence from 
the Surrey magistrates for musical entertainments, 
after the manner of Vauxhall, and these, with an 
expenditure of ,£4,000 on decorations, brought his 
place into considerable popularity. He had also 
secured the services of Jonas Blewitt, a distinguished 
organist of the latter half of the eighteenth century, 
who composed the music of many songs for the 
entertainments at the Spa. One of the singers 
engaged by Keyse for his concerts, in the season of 
1788, was a Mr. William Herbert, 1 who has left a 
few impressions of the Spa in the Memoirs of his life 
(preserved in the Guildhall Library). The gardens, 
he says, " were spacious — more so in some respects 
even than Vauxhall — there was a fine band ; and 
what was wanting at Vauxhall, a large field at the 
back, parted from the gardens by a canal (Neck- 
inger?) and chevaux-de-frise." There were the usual 
arbours and benches for tea-drinking, and on the 

1 After a somewhat chequered career, during which he kept 
a bookseller's shop, perhaps discovering thereby what was his 
real bent, Mr. Herbert had the distinction of being elected in 
1828 the first librarian of the Guildhall Library, and this post 
he continued to fill until his retirement in 1845. 

191 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

north-east side of the gardens was a lawn of about 
3 acres. An occasional display of fireworks took 
place, and the gardens and a cascade (introduced 
about 1792) were illuminated. 

The permanent indoor attraction was the Gallery 
of Paintings, the pictures all executed by Keyse, who, 
from 1765-68, was an occasional exhibitor at the 
Society of Artists. The subjects were taken from still 
life, chiefly representations of shop interiors, one of 
a butcher's shop and another of a greengrocer's shop 
being particularly remarkable for their close imitation 
of nature. They were painted, in short, with all the 
minuteness of the Dutch School, and though not of 
a high order, yet, regarded as the work of a self- 
taught artist, possessed uncommon merit. Sir Joshua 
Reynolds paid him two visits. Admission to the 
gardens was gained by the purchase of a check in 
copper or lead, for a shilling, half the value being 
allowed in wine. On special occasions the admission 
was half a crown or three shillings. Perhaps the 
waters were not entirely neglected, but of these 
nothing is said ; the proprietor apparently found his 
entertainments sufficiently lucrative without pressing 
their sale. He was for some time successful ; a clever 
picture-model of the siege of Gibraltar, the height of 
the " Rock" 50 feet and its length 200 feet, in fire- 
works and transparencies, occupying a large space of 
ground, designed by Keyse himself, is mentioned in 
accounts of the place. Pony races were run in the 
grounds. The Picture of London for 1802 mentions 
in the "Almanack of Pleasures" under July 17, 
" A silver cup run for at Spa Gardens, Bermondsey, 
by gentlemen's ponies." Mr. J. T. Smith, in his 

192 



South London Spas and Wells 

"Book for a Rainy Day," relates how he paid a visit 
to the Spa in the year 1795, when he was personally 
conducted round it by Keyse, who, Smith says, was 
in person " a little thick-set man, with a round face, 
arch look, closely curled wig surmounted by a small 
three-cornered hat, put knowingly on one side, not 
unlike Hogarth's head in his print of the Gates of 
Calais." At the time of Smith's visit the once-famed 
resort was on the decline, and only remained open for 
about five years after the death of Keyse on February 
8, 1800. His successors in the management failed to 
make it pay, and it was closed about 1804 or l &°5- 
The house in which Keyse lived and died was a 
large wooden-fronted building, consisting of square 
divisions in imitation of scantlings of stone. There 
are a few tokens of the place extant (about the size 
of a halfpenny) 1 and the name and site are kept in 
remembrance by the Spa Road. 

In the reign of William III. an announcement 
appeared in the London Gazette of April 27-30, 1696, 
which ran thus : " Lambeth purging waters in Lang- 
ton Gardens, Lambeth Fields, near the ' Three 
Coneys,' will be opened to-morrow. The place is 
extremely pleasant and fitted for the entertainment 
of persons of all Qualities. On Tuesdays, Wednes- 
days and Fridays the musick will be continued till 
four after noon, and the other days till seven. To 

1 These were of extremely coarse workmanship ; probably 
used as tickets of admission : Obv. Two Keys, and between 
them T.K. in monogram. Legend, bermondsey spa gardens. 
Rev. A group of musical instruments, and in the centre a 
flaming heart. 1789. 

193 N 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

prevent mistakes, on the top of the House which 
covers the Well is a Golden Ball." One cannot in 
the absence of other data be quite certain that this 
was the first public announcement of the opening of 
Lambeth Wells ; it reads rather as if it were not — 
the more so as such places usually began by merely 
supplying the waters ; the entertainments came 
afterwards. The wells consisted of two springs, 
distinguished as the Nearer and Farther Well, and 
were situated in Three Coney Walk, now called 
Lambeth Walk. The water was supplied to St. 
Thomas's Hospital and elsewhere at a penny per 
quart ; to the poor it was free. The usual price of 
admission was threepence, including the music. 
From an advertisement in the Postman of March 28, 
1700, we learn that the season for drinking the waters 
began that year on Easter Monday. Another 
advertisement, appearing in the Daily Courant for 
March 8, 1721, announces" a Consort of very good 
music, with French and Country dancing. . . . 
Note — There will be attendance given every 
morning to any Gentlemen or Ladies that have 
occasion to drink the waters." 

These " Consorts " underwent further development 
when a Mr. Ireland (successor to one Keeffe), be- 
came proprietor, after about 1740, in whose time a 
musical society was formed and met here monthly 
under the leadership of Mr. Sterling Goodwin, 
organist of St. Saviour's, South wark. 1 The wells 
remained in some degree of credit till about 1736, 
when they met with a rival in those of St. George's 
Spa on the borders of the parish. We incidentally 

1 J. Nichols, " History and Antiquities of Lambeth," 1786, p. 65. 

194 



South London Spas and Wells 

learn that there were grand gala days at Lambeth 
Wells in 1747, and in the year 1752 was celebrated 
a penny wedding, for the benefit of a young couple. 
A few years after this the wells gradually declined, 
and the place at length became a public nuisance, 
the proprietor was refused a licence, and the premises 
were let as a Methodist Meeting House. Bray, in 
his continuation of Manning's " History of Surrey " 
(18 14), says the place had become a common ale- 
house by the name of " The Well." The wells 
themselves, though long closed to the public, were 
existing in 1829, in which year a public-house, the 
sign of the " Fountain," in Lambeth Walk, formerly 
the house of entertainment attached to them, was 
taken down. In digging for the erection of another 
public-house on the same site, many glass bottles 
or flagons of peculiar shape were found with the 
initials "P.K." on them — of Keeffe, a former pro- 
prietor of the wells. 

In the same parish (of Lambeth), on the side of 
the road from Vauxhall turnpike to Wandsworth, 
on the right hand, was a spring called Vauxhall Well. 
The water was esteemed highly serviceable in many 
disorders of the eyes. In the hardest winters it 
never froze. 

Within half a mile of Lambeth Wells in a north- 
easterly direction was a small public-house called the 
" Dog and Duck," which had existed as early as 1642. 
It stood on the outskirts of St. George's Fields, 
named after the Church of St. George the Martyr. 
These " Fields," marked by all the floral beauty of 
meadows, and as yet unsullied by London smoke, 

195 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

had, some fifty years earlier, attracted Gerarde, who 
came here to collect specimens for his " Herball." 
" Of water-violets," he says, " I have not found such 
plenty in any one place as the water ditches adjoining 
St. George his fielde neare London." An entry in 
Evelyn's Diary tells us how in September, 1666, 
many of the unfortunate victims of the Great Fire 
retreated to these fields with such of their goods and 
chattels as they were able to save from the flames. 
Considering that these broad meadow tracts, includ- 
ing Lambeth Marsh, lying between them and the 
Thames, were formerly in winter, and indeed at 
every high tide, almost covered with water, it is not 
surprising that ponds were abundant. Near a group 
of these, and the " Dog and Duck" grounds, in which 
the sport of duck-hunting was carried on, were 
mineral springs of an aperient quality, known as 
early as 1695. Dr. John Fothergill, an "eminent 
physician," tells us that this water had gained a repu- 
tation for the cure of most cutaneous disorders, and 
was useful for keeping the body cool, and preventing 
cancerous affections. About the year 1731 the water 
was advertised for sale, when the "Dog and Duck" 
adopted the rather high-sounding title of "St. George's 
Spa." At this period the water was sold on the spot 
for fourpence a gallon. A dozen bottles could be 
had at the Spa (circa i733~36) for one shilling. 
From about 1754 till 1770 the water was in consider- 
able demand, and new buildings, including a Long 
Room with tables and benches and an organ, 1 appear 

1 Organs were first introduced into taverns during the 
Commonwealth period, when their use in Divine Service was 
for the time being abolished. 

196 



South London Spas and Wells 

to have been erected for the accommodation of visitors, 
among whom were not wanting persons of good 
social position. Dr. Johnson, in a letter of July 10, 
1 77 1, advised Mrs. Thrale to take the waters here. 
From this date to near the end of the century they 
continued to be advertised in the newspapers. The 
following advertisement appears in the Times of 
May 26, 1795 : " ' Dog and Duck ' Spa and Bath, St. 
George's Fields. — J. Hedger respectfully informs the 
Public the Gardens of the above Spa are open for 
the reception of those who wish to drink the 
waters on the spot, at the usual terms of 3d. each 
person," &c. r 

The following extract from a MS. of 1826 by 
Hone, the author of the "Year Book," is printed in 
extenso by Larwood and Hotten : 2 " It (the ' Dog and 
Duck') was a very small public-house till Hedger's 
mother took it ; she had been a barmaid to a tavern- 
keeper in London. Her son joined her, and the house 
— as a tavern — seems to have done a very thriving 
business, for when Hedger left it to his nephew, one 
Miles, the latter was to make him an allowance of 
;£ 1,000 a year out of the profits ; and it was he who 
allowed the house to acquire so bad a character that 
the licence was taken away. I have this," says 
Hone, " from William Nelson, who was servant to 
Mrs. Hedger, and remembers the house before he 
(Miles) had it," adding — " Hedger, I am told, was the 
first person who sold the water." In 1787 the " Dog 
and Duck" became the haunt of disreputable characters, 
the consequence being that the magistrates of Surrey, 

1 "Old Times," John Ashton, 1885. 

2 " History of Signboards" (1866). 

197 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

when Hedger applied to have his licence renewed, 
refused ; the Lord Mayor overruled this at a court 
he held in Southwark, and granted one conditionally 
upon the place being closed on Sundays. After a 
long existence, during which it frequently figured in 
connection with trials for highway robbery and other 
crimes, it was suppressed by order of the magistrates. 
The house was pulled down in 1811 for the building 
of the present Bethlehem Hospital, and the exact 
site of the well is no longer known. The old stone 
sign of the inn is still preserved, embedded in the 
brick wall of the Hospital garden, visible from the 
road, and representing a dog holding a duck in its 
mouth, and in a separate panel the arms of the 
Bridge House Estate and the date 17 16. The 
position of the tablet is close to the actual site of the 
once notorious " Dog and Duck." 

Several views of the exterior of the " Dog and 
Duck " exist. Wroth mentions the following : * — 

The " Dog and Duck Tavern " copied from an old 
drawing 1646, water colour drawing by T. H. Shep- 
herd, Crace Collection, Cat., p. 646, No. 27. 

The " Dog and Duck" in 1772. A print published 
in that year. Crace Collection, Cat., p. 646, No. 28. 

Woodcut of exterior, 1780, in Chambers's " Book of 
Days," ii. 74. 

Interior of the Assembly Room, a stipple engrav- 
ing, 1789, reproduced by Rendle and Norman in 
" Inns of Old Southwark," p. 369. This shows the 
company moving about in the centre of the room, 
which is lighted by large chandeliers ; the organ is 

1 " London Pleasure Gardens of the [Eighteenth Century," 
p. 277. 

198 



-*> 




o 5 



South London Spas and Wells 

at the far end, and ranged along the walls on either 
side are tables for tea-drinking, at which some of 
the guests are sitting. 

The discovery of the coping-stones of the old Lady- 
Well was made about 1880, in digging to underpin 
an arch of the bridge over the Mid Kent Railway at 
Ladywell, where there had been a settlement of the 
ground. The stones were rescued from destruction 
by a signalman in the Company's employ, and in 
1896 were re-erected and now form part of a fountain 
in the grounds of the Ladywell Public Baths. 

The bringing to light of these stones led to a 
controversy as to which of two springs — one a 
medicinal spring — was the true Lady Well, and this 
was carried on in the Kentish Mercury for some 
time during the year 1896. 1 The correspondence is 
summarised in a paper published by the Home 
Counties Magazine (vol. i., 1899), by Mr. C. A. 
Bradford, who here records probably all that is 
known on the subject. The first mention of any 
spring in the parish of which, he says, he can find 
any trace, is in Warkworth's " Chronicles," edited 
by J. O. Halliwell for the Camden Society in 1839. 
Speaking of the hot summer in the 13th year of 
King Edward IV. 's reign (1472), Warkworth 2 says : 
" Also in the same year . . . water ran hugely, 
with such abundance that never man saw it run so 

1 See the Kentish Mercury for June 12, 1896. 

2 John Warkworth, Bachelor of Divinity, the reputed author 
of a Chronicle of Edward IV. 's time, was a man of unknown 
origin. He was appointed Master of the College of Peterhouse, 
Cambridge, in 1473, and remained its head till his death in 
1500. (Dictionary of National Biography.) 

199 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

much afore this time . . . also as they saw this 
water run they knew well it was a token of dearth 
or of pestilence or of (a) great battle. Also there 
has run divers such other waters that betoken the 
likewise ; one at Levesham (Lewisham) in Kent." 
Warkworth is quoted by Leland in his " Collec- 
tanea," l by Kilburne in his Survey, 2 by Hasted,3 
as well as by recent authors. The well is not men- 
tioned in Lewisham parish registers till towards the 
close of the eighteenth century. Lysons, writing in 
i8ii,4 evidently refers to the mineral spring when 
he says : " Between Lewisham and Brockley is 
a well of the same quality as those at Tonbridge 
(i.e., chalybeate) ; a woman attends to serve the 
water, which is delivered gratis to the inhabitants 
of the parish." 

In Knight's "Journey Book of England " 5 (Kent, 
p. 58, 1842), the author confuses the Lady Well with 
the mineral spring when, in describing the Ravens- 
bourne, he says : " At Catford Bridge, near Rushey 
Green, it receives into its channel the small river 
Chiffinch, and after crossing Brockley Lane, the 
waters from the Lady Well also, which is supposed 
to be the Great Spring mentioned by Kilburne as 
newly breaking out of the earth in 1472." 

Butt's " Historical Guide to Lewisham," published 
in 1878, is the most explicit as to its position in the 

1 Vol. iii. part 2, p. 508, written before 1550. 

2 " A Topographie or Survey of the County of Kent," by 
Richard Kilburne, 1659, p. 168. 

3 " History of Kent," 1778. 

4 " Environs of London," vol. ii. p. 572. 

s " The Journey Book of England," Chas. Knight and Co., 
1842. Kensington Public Library. 

200 



South London Spas and Wells 

following passage (page 21): " Crossing the bridge and 
exactly in front of the Freemason's Arms Inn we 
have the site of the Lady Well. The old well was 
opposite Ladywell House, and in (what is now) 
nearly the centre of the road leading to the Railway 
Station (opened in 1857) and just by the railway 
arch. It had a railing of iron round it, was 6 or 7 
feet deep, with a small grating at the bottom, where 
the spring rose, which used to fill the well and flow 
over. This well was filled up and covered over 
some years ago when a sewer was made just there." 
The guide-book then goes on to speak of the mineral 
well " situated by the left (south) side of the road at 
Ladywell Cottage, before the cemetery is reached." 
It adds : " Mrs. Beak, the present tenant of Lord 
Dartmouth, informs me that this well was situated in 
the garden above her Cottage ; that it was run dry 
by the making of the same sewer r which was fatal 
to the old Lady Well, somewhat more than eleven 
years ago (about 1865 or 1866) ; that a previous 
tenant named Stiles dismantled it, and sold the 
bottom stone. The well was railed round, and the 
spring reached by descending several steps. Her 
husband, on taking the cottage about 1868, found 
everything in disorder and the well destroyed. The 
water was noted for its benefit to weak eyes, and 
a lady, now residing at Norwood, told the present 
tenant that she, when a girl, came every day to 
drink of the water for the benefit of her health." 

Mr. Bradford concludes his article by remarking 
that " it seems certain the name Ladywell is of 

1 Penge and Bell Green Sewers. (See Kentish Mercury, 
January 12, 1866.) 

201 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

comparatively modern origin, neither name nor well 
being marked on Rocque's Survey (1745), nor on 
Hasted's map of the hundred of Blackheath (1778), 
whilst the Ordnance Survey Department, though 
admitting that a well is marked on the earliest 
Ordnance Survey Map of 1799, assert that the 
name of Lady well first appeared on the MS. one- 
inch Ordnance Survey Map of 1841. 

Both the place-name — Ladywell — and the well 
itself are marked on Crutchley's Map of London 
and its Environs (1831), the well being situated a 
little to the westward of the Ravensbourne, on the 
south side of Brockley Lane, which was afterwards 
crossed at this spot by the railway bridge. 

The arguments as to the identity of the well 
which gave its name to the place left the issue 
undecided, the disputants being about equally 
divided. 

The view of the Lady Well which illustrates Mr. 
Bradford's paper is put down by him as published 
approximately in 1820. He believes it to be the only 
copy extant of the earliest known representation of 
the well. It is shown in the picture, which is taken 
from a lithograph, as lying on the right of the 
foreground, its circular basin slightly raised above 
the level of the road. In the background is the 
tower of St. Mary's, the parish church of Lewisham. 1 
A view taken some twenty years later is contained in 
Knight's V Journey Book," and shows the well-head 
of circular stones protected by an iron railing 
supported on five wooden posts, one side open to 

1 The old parish church was taken down in 1774, and the 
present church erected on its site. 

202 




iVadBc" 



A. S. Foord fecit. 

THE OLD LADY WELL, 184: 
Kensington Public Library. 



A. S.Foord fecit. 

FOUNTAIN AT LADYWELL BATHS. 
Containing the coping-stones of the old well. 



South London Spas and Wells 

afford access to the water. The background is 
filled up with a fence and trees behind it. 

The sketch of the fountain is taken from a photo- 
graph belonging to Mr. Watson, the superintendent 
of the Ladywell Public Baths, and was lent by him 
to Mr. Graham, chief librarian of the Lewisham 
Central Library, who kindly forwarded it to the 
writer, and who was instrumental in procuring 
much of the information regarding the Lady Well 
history and associations contained in the foregoing 
description. 

The large spur of London Clay known as Shooter's 
Hill is one of the most prominent objects of the 
landscape in the south-eastern district of London, and 
is in marked contrast with the broad alluvial flats 
stretching along the valley of the Thames at its base. 
The hill rises up on all sides to a height of 200 feet 
and more above the surrounding country, sometimes 
with a slope of io°, and reaching, with its capping 
of gravel, the height of 420 feet above the sea-level. 

Shooter's Hill appears to have been long famous 
for its mineral wells, and there is abundance of water 
still to be found just under its surface, even on the 
crown of the hill, where a few ponds exist to attest 
the fact. The position of the mineral spring that 
bears its name is described by most modern writers 
as at the top of the hill, but in the earliest notice 
of it, contained in a hand-bill or broadside, printed 
and published by W. Godbid in 1673/ it is stated 
to be "at the foot of Shooter's Hill, on the north- 
west side, near the great road that leads to Graves- 

1 There is a copy in the British Museum. 
203 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

end." " The situation of the spring, says Godbid, 
" is pleasant, healthful and commodious, with conveni- 
ences of house-room at and near the well, and stable- 
room for horses." The waters he characterises as 
" medicinal for internal and external griefs : the scent 
nitrous and bituminous, the taste brisk and partly- 
bitterish." 

It is recorded that John Guy, who in 1675 was 
tenant of the ground on which the wells were sunk, 
claimed to have discovered their medicinal qualities, 
and called them " The Purging Wells." They con- 
sisted of three holes ; two were steined with brick 
by Guy at a cost of forty shillings, about four years 
after their discovery. The water was procured in 
a very primitive manner, being taken out of one hole 
by means of a ladder, and by a dish out of another, 
which was even with the ground. Charles Good- 
cheape, or Goodcheafe, of Plumstead, Yeoman, the 
succeeding tenant, erected a small house over one 
of the wells for greater convenience. The first 
tenant, Guy, died in 1699. In the August of that 
year John Evelyn tells us : "I drank the Shooter's 
Hill waters," and we learn from the London Dis- 
pensatory that the mineral well of Shooter's Hill 
was resorted to for sulphate of magnesia (or Epsom 
salts) in 1700. Queen Anne is said to have used it. 

Hughson, in his " History of London," as recently 
as 1808, speaks of the spring on the top of Shooter's 
Hill, which, he says, constantly overflows the well, 
and is not frozen in the sharpest winters. There 
is here either a mistake as to the position of the 
spring, or the reference is to a different one from 
that described by Godbid. Mr. W. T. Vincent, in 

204 



South London Spas and Wells 

''Records of the Woolwich District" (1888-90), 
says the mineral well " was and is on the eastern 
edge of the waste ground behind the Royal Military 
Academy, and was to be seen until about 1870 under 
a shed in the garden of a cottage (in rear of the Eagle 
Tavern) occupied by a Sapper, who had charge of 
the well on behalf of the Government, and supplied 
the water to visitors at a small fee. The shed which 
covered this well seems to connect it with Charles 
Goodcheape aforesaid, but the shed has now dis- 
appeared and the well is seen in the garden under 
a flat stone." l 

Walford says, in " Greater London" (1884) : "The 
well is still visited by invalids of the neighbourhood." 

A wayside well existed, Mr. Vincent says, in his 
work already quoted, on the south side of Shooter's 
Hill Road until recently, but is now filled up and 
obliterated. It occupied the south-east corner of the 
Castle 2 approach, and was opposite "The Limes." 
This was virtually, if not actually, on the top of the 
hill ; but it was not generally regarded as medicinal. 
It was a dipping well, into which there was a descent 
of one or two steps. The three wells owned by John 
Guy, being of similar character, were probably near 
to each other. An analysis of the water was made 



1 The Ordnance Survey Map (edition 1894-96) marks the 
position of the well. 

2 Severndroog Castle — erected on Shooter's Hill by Lady 
James in 1784 to commemorate the taking of a pirate strong- 
hold of that name on the coast of Malabar by Sir William 
James in 1755. The castle is a triangular brick edifice, with 
turrets at the angles and containing specimens of native armour, 
weapons, &c, captured at Severn Droog. 

205 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

in 1840 by Mr. James Marsh, chemist, Royal 
Arsenal, who found that a quart of it contained 151 
grains of solid ingredients, which comprised about 
58 per cent, of sulphate of magnesia, so that taken 
internally it would act as a mild aperient. 



206 



CHAPTER III 
OUTLYING SPAS AND WELLS OF SOUTH LONDON 

Camberwell — Evelyn's record of a visit — Different theories 
about the origin of the name — Lysons, Bray, Salmon, 
and Allport— Well at Dr. Lettsom's Villa at Grove Hill 
— Milkwell Manor — Effects of an iron spring upon the 
water in the public baths in the Old Kent Road — 
Dulwich Wells — Manor of Dulwich presented to the 
Priory of Bermondsey by Henry I. — Bew's Corner — 
Grove Tavern — The sinking of a well in the grounds by the 
proprietor Cox leads to discovery of a purging water — 
John Martyn experimented on the water, which was supplied 
to St. Bartholomew's Hospital — Sydenham Wells — Evelyn 
an early visitor here — Called also Dulwich Wells — John 
Peter, a physician, writes the first detailed account of Syden- 
ham Wells — Wells Cottage in Wells Road — George III.'s 
visit to the cottage — Thomas Campbell's house at Syden- 
ham — Beulah Spa — Beauty of its situation — Not known 
when or how the mineral spring was discovered — Described 
by Dr. Weatherhead — Analysis of the water by Professor 
Faraday — Entertainments recorded — Mr. J. Corbet Anderson 
on the Spa and well open when he wrote — Mineral spring 
at Biggin Hill — Analysis of the water — Streatham Wells — 
First account of them by Aubrey — Circumstances of their 
discovery — Well House, now "The Rookery" — Closing of 
the old spring and opening of another on Lime Common — 
Miss Priscilla Wakefield tastes the water — Analysis of the 
water made by Messrs. Redwood and de Hailes in 1895. 

IN Camberwell we again have, as in Islington, a 
name to which different meanings have been 
attached. The place is mentioned in the Domesday 

207 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Book as a manor of some value, the name being 
written Ca'brewelle. 1 In subsequent records the 
letter b was exchanged for m, and until the 
sixteenth or seventeenth century the name appeared 
under the guise of Cam well or of Camerwell. In 
the seventeenth century, as Blanch informs us in 
his history of the parish (1875) the b found its 
way back again ; but it was not until the middle 
of the eighteenth century that Camberwell, as it is 
now written, was officially recognised. Lysons, in his 
" Environs of London," writes : " I can find nothing 
satisfactory with respect to its etymology ; the termi- 
nation seems to point to some remarkable spring." 
Evelyn records, under date of September 1, 1657: 
" I visited Sir Edmund Bowyer at his melancholie 
seat at Camerwell." Salmon, the Surrey historian, 
writing in 1736, says : " It seems to be named from 
some mineral water which was anciently in it ; " and 
Bray adopts the same idea. But it has also been 
conjectured by a writer of " A Short Historical and 
Topographical Account of St. Giles's Church" (1827), 
the parish church of Camberwell — that as the name 
of St. Giles conveys an idea of cripples, so, since the 
prefix cam 2 means crooked, the well which gave part 
of the name to the village might therefore have been 
famous for some medicinal virtues, occasioning the 
dedication of the church to this patron saint of 



1 The name in the Conqueror's Survey oceurs in this 
sentence : " Ipse Haimo ten' Ca'brewelle." (Haimo himself 
holds Cambrewelle.) 

2 To cam, in the Manchester dialect, is to cross or contradict 
a person, or to bend anything awry. ( u Words and Places," Isaac 
Taylor, p. 145.) 

208 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

cripples and mendicants. Allport, 1 in his account 
of Camberwell (1841), says that the spring which 
gave its name to Camberwell rose in the grounds 
of Dr. Lettsom's Villa at Grove Hill, the lease of 
which he purchased in 1799. Manning and Bray, 
in their "History of Surrey" (1804-12), describe 
the house as standing on a considerable eminence 
rising gradually for about three-quarters of a mile 
from the village of Camberwell. Mr. Heckethorn, 
in dealing with the subject in " London Souvenirs " 
(1899), points out that the well " appears to have been 
of some consequence, for in 1782, when the property 
on which it was sunk changed hands, the owners 
of the estate reserved to themselves, their heirs and 
assigns, in common with the tenant, the free use 
of it." Brayley and Walford, on the other hand, 
in their "History of Surrey" (1848), treat the 
statement as merely traditional that the spring or 
well which gave the name to Camberwell was the 
same that supplied the reservoir for Dr. Lettsom's 
fountain. 

Within the last century or so, says Walford 2 three 
ancient wells were discovered in a field in the parish, 
but they were covered in again by the owner of the 
land. Among other manors in these parts was one 
called Milkwell, belonging to the Hospital of St. 
Thomas, Southwark : there was also a wood called 
Milkwell Wood in Lambeth, containing 20 acres. 
These were presumably named from some long- 
forgotten spring or well. 

1 Douglas Allport, " Collections, illustrative of the History, 
Antiquities, &c., of Camberwell and Neighbourhood," 1841. 
? " Old and New London," vol. vi. p. 269. 

209 O 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

As a proof of the prevalence of mineral springs 
in the London area, the recent discovery of one of 
these within the borough of Camberwell should be 
mentioned. An account of this quite unexpected 
" find " was given in the Daily Telegraph of June 5, 
1906. It appears that the spring in question was 
tapped by the artesian well which was sunk to a depth 
of 400 feet to supply the water for the new public 
baths in the Old Kent Road. " The discovery came 
about," says the narrator, " in consequence of com- 
plaints made by bathers, and others using the baths 
that the water was dirty. It was a most unfounded 
charge, as investigation soon proved. The water, 
it is true, quickly discoloured, and after being warmed 
or exposed to the air it was found to assume a rusty 
tinge." The fact was soon established that the water 
contained not dirt, but iron. "The water," declared 
Dr. Bousfield, who analysed it "is unusually rich 
in iron, being comparable in this respect with the 
Tunbridge Wells water, and it would appear almost 
as if the (Borough) Council were in the position to 
set up a spa in the Old Kent Road." A represen- 
tative of the Daily Telegraph was assured by Mr. 
C. W. Tagg, the town clerk of Camberwell, that 
several people who were victims of rheumatism and 
had visited the baths had testified to having 
experienced undoubted relief after using them, the 
Mayor of Camberwell himself having found them 
distinctly efficacious. 

Dulwich, says Miss Priscilla Wakefield, in her 
"Perambulations in London" (1809), "is pleasantly 
retired, having no high road passing through it " ; 

210 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

the nearest, before the nineteenth century, lay two 
or three miles off, passing through Streatham and 
Croydon, and the road that traversed Dulwich simply 
led to the still smaller village of Sydenham. 

This comparative seclusion may account for the 
saying that of all the village entrances in the environs 
of London, the prettiest is that of Dulwich, and 
even down to this day it has lost but little of its rural 
character, not only as regards the village itself, but 
also beyond it, where one can still saunter through 
lanes bordered by hedgerows and overhung by 
branches of oak or elm ; and if the nightingale's 
"long trills and gushing ecstasies of song" are no 
longer heard, there is yet the cheery voice of the 
skylark high amongst the morning clouds, and as 
the evening twilight advances the flute-like notes 
of the song-thrush. 

The ancient form of the name Dulwich appears 
in many documents as Dilwysshe, which is said to 
have been derived from De la Wyk or de Dilewisse, 
the owner of lands in Camberwell in the reign of 
Henry I. {circa noo). This monarch in 1127 pre- 
sented the manor with other estates to the Priory 
of Bermondsey, whose Abbot (the Priory having 
been raised to the dignity of an Abbey) in 1539 
voluntarily surrendered it to the Crown. The pur- 
chase of the manor about the year 1606 by Edward 
Alleyn, founder of the famous "College of God's 
Gift," is well known. 

One of the most interesting spots within the 
hamlet, at least so far as concerns the subject of these 
pages, is that formerly known as Bew's Corner, 
Lordship Lane, on the verge of Dulwich Common, 

211 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

where now Dulwich Common Lane meets Lordship 
Lane, and about a mile south-east of Dulwich 
College. The site was previously occupied by the 
" Green Man," a tavern of some note in the seven- 
teenth century. Ceasing to be used as an inn, it 
was renamed " Dulwich Grove," and became the 
temporary residence of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, 
while the house at Knight's Hill was being built 
for him, but which he is said never to have occupied. 
Subsequently the house, a substantial white stone 
building of two stories, was opened by Dr. Glennie 
as a school or academy, at which Lord Byron was a 
pupil for two years — 1 799-1801. The house was 
known to Dr. Webster — an authority on the subject 
of medicinal waters, and an old resident of the 
hamlet — in 181 5, and about ten years after (1825) 
when Dr. Glennie had left and the house had been 
pulled down, he remembered seeing a well within 
the premises, which had been long disused, but whose 
waters he tasted and found to be chalybeate. About 
this time a man named Bew, formerly employed at 
the college, opened a beer-house here, making use 
of some of the outbuildings of the once famous 
school, and converting the grounds into a tea-garden. 
The Grove Tavern was built on the site of the 
old school-house, its successor being erected in or 
about the year i860, under the name of the Grove 
Hotel, which it retains. It was in the grounds of 
the old "Green Man" during the autumn of 1739 
that Mr. Francis Cox, 1 the proprietor, having occa- 

1 The family of Cox was long resident in the neighbourhood, 
as is shown by the Chapel Registers. (" Norwood and Dul- 
wich/' Galer, 1890.) 

212 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

sion to sink a well for the use of his family, dug 
down about 60 feet, and not finding water filled 
in the hole. In the succeeding Spring he reopened 
it in the presence of Mr. John Marty n, F.R.S., a 
Professor of Botany at Cambridge, who found it 
to contain about 25 feet of water, and having 
made a number of experiments, " was satisfied that 
the new spring was really a purging water . . . 
being drank fresh in the quantity of five half-pint 
glasses." It had a sulphurous taste and smell which 
went off by degrees after the well had been open 
some days. In a later description of the discovery 
and of the merits of this spring, published in 1740, 
Professor Marty n says : " There has not been any 
medicinal spring observed in Dulwich before." l 

To such an extent did the Londoners flock to the 
new spring that within a few years the " Green Man " 
was superseded by the more appropriate name of 
"Dulwich Wells." In the years 1748, 1757, and 
1762, advertisements appeared announcing: "The 
purging waters now in their proper season for 
drinking. The Great Breakfast- Room at the 'Green 
Man' at Dulwich, opened 16 May, 1748, and con- 
tinued every Monday during the summer season 
at one shilling each person." The waters were 
supplied regularly to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 
besides being sold in the streets of London. 

After the death of Francis Cox, his son William 
sold his interest to one James Rowles, a wine 
merchant in Westminster. This person in 1774 
disposed of the house to Charles Maxwell, the 

1 His account of the waters was sent to the Royal Society 
(Philosophical Trans., xli., 835). 

213 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

remainder of whose term expired in 1780. His 
application to the then Master of the College for a 
new lease led to a lawsuit, owing to the arbitrary 
terms in which the lease was drawn up. The result 
was that the College had to pay the costs and give 
a renewal of the lease to Maxwell. Lord Thurlow 
heard the suit. Whether this litigation or the falling 
off of water-drinking in London was the cause, is 
uncertain, but the Dulwich Wells certainly did 
decline from this time. At all events they were 
not in use in 18 14, when Bray wrote the third 
volume of his " History of Surrey." 

The name of Cox is kept in remembrance by 
V Cox's Walk," facing the Grove Hotel — a broad 
pathway, shaded by an avenue of young trees, and 
leading by a rather steep ascent to Sydenham Hill. 

The local history of Sydenham l really commenced 
with the discovery there of the mineral springs about 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the 
place consisted of only a few farm-houses and 
cottages dotted about the common. Previous to 
1854, in which year the Crystal Palace was opened, 
Sydenham was a hamlet and chapelry in the parish 
of Lewisham. For some reason, probably on account 
of their nearness to Dulwich, as suggested by Lysons, 
the Sydenham Wells were almost always called 
Dulwich Wells. Evelyn, who seems to have been 

1 Sydenham appears as Cippenham in ancient documents. 
Thus in 1332, in the "Annals of Bermondsey Abbey," we learn 
that " inquiry was made at Cippenham for 60 shillings, due 
annually to the Church at Bermondsey from the Manor of 
Cippenham, viz., from the land called Dillehurst." ( u Norwood 
and Dulwich : Past and Present," Allan M. Galer, 1890.) 

214 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

one of the earliest visitors of note, twice mentions 
them. Under date September 2, 1675, is an entry 
in his Diary : " I went to see Dulwich Colledge, 
being the pious foundation of one Allen, a famous 
Comedian in King James's time. . . . 'Tis a melan- 
cholie part of Camerwell parish. I came back (to 
Deptford) by certaine medicinal spa waters called 
Sydnam Wells, in Lewisham parish, much frequented 
in summer." Two years later, August 5, 1677, this 
entry occurs : " I went to visit my Lord Brounker, 
now taking the waters at Dulwich." Seeing that the 
medicinal spring at Dulwich was not known till 1739, 
the reference here must be to the Sydenham Wells. 
A still earlier allusion to them is incidentally made 
by Culpeper, in his " English Physician," &C., 1 first 
published in 1653, in which he says that the juniper 
bush ''grows plentifully hard by the New-found Wells 
at Dulwich." Lewisham Wells was yet another 
name applied to the wells at Sydenham, simply 
because they were in Lewisham parish. 

Six years after Evelyn's first visit an interesting 
and rather amusing tract was written and published 
in 1680 by John Peter, physician. It is a duodecimo 
of 88 pages, now very scarce, printed at London " by 
Thomas James, for Samuel Tidmarsh, at the Kings 
Head, in Corn Hill." The style is somewhat 
pompous and inflated, but his little book is of great 
interest as being the first detailed account of Syden- 
ham Wells. " It is observable," he writes, " that in 
that very place where now the Wells are, there 
used to be only gushings of waters, where multitudes 

1 " The English Physician Enlarged with 369 Medicines made 
of English Herbs," Nicholas Culpeper, 1653. 

215 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

of pigeons used to frequent ; enough to give in- 
telligence to any observing naturalist that there 
was something wherewith the water was impregnated 
that did invite and delight them, some saline 
aluminous liquor, of which the fowls naturally love 
to be tippling." Dr. Peter advises that the water 
should be taken warm, either as a posset drink 
made in the usual way, or by mixing three pints 
of the water with a quarter of a pint of boiling milk. 
He was followed in 1699 by Benjamin Allen, bachelor 
of medicine, who wrote "The Natural History of the 
Mineral Waters of Great Britain," an octavo volume 
which reached a second edition in 171 1. In this 
he describes the " Dulwich Water" as "a water 
medicated with a salt of the nature of common salt, 
but with a nitrous quality and a little more marcasitical " 
(i.e., having the properties of iron pyrites). 

" The wells," he goes on to say, " are at the foot of 
a heavy claiy Hill, about twelve in number, standing 
together, discovered about 1640. They are about 
nine feet deep, as I gess'd at view, in which the water 
stood about half a yard. The Petrif'd Incrusted 
Stones, when broke, glitter with Ferreous Parts, as 
Sulphurous marcasites- produce ; which I proved and 
found to be only parts of iron. . . . The water taken 
the same day with Richmond in the quantity of nine 
ounces and a quarter, was 28 grains heavier 
than common water and 12 than Richmond. 
The nature of the salt of this water, which it takes 
from the peculiarity of the earth which generates it, 
is that of common salt : in that it turn'd with gall, 
first yellow and clear, then thick and muddy, white 
not free of yellowness, in making no alteration in a 

216 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

solution of sublimat and in making an effervescence 
with a spirit of niter, but none with spirit of salt." 

The first recorded patient who actually experienced 
the benefit of the Sydenham waters was a poor 
woman who, in 1640 or 1648 — so the story goes — 
suffering from a terrible disease, was directed by a 
physician to whom she had applied for advice, to try 
their effect. This she did, and being soon cured, 
the springs thus became famous. Besides being 
partaken of by visitors on the spot, the waters were 
hawked about the streets of London before 1678, 
as is proved by a pamphlet of that date preserved 
in the British Museum, describing how a man who 
used to cry "Dullidg" water in London killed his own 
son. The boy had been absent on an errand rather 
longer than was necessary, for which his father beat 
him so severely that he died an hour or so after- 
wards. 

" Any fresh and fair spring water here ! " was 
formerly the familiar London cry of those who made 
it their business to convey it to Town for the con- 
venience of persons who could not fetch it for them- 
selves, nor afford to buy it at the shops where it was 
on sale. 

Till 1802 Sydenham remained a mere sprinkling of 
houses upon a common, with some old houses on 
the hill above it — then called Pig Hill. Many of the 
poorer patients to the wells, it would appear, says 
Mr. William Young in his " History of Dulwich 
College " (1889) dwelt on Sydenham Common in huts 
or structures of a temporary nature. 

The story of the little house in the Wells Road, 
where, in days gone by, the Sydenham waters were 

217 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

served, is interesting as having been in the occupa- 
tion of the same family for more than a century and 
three-quarters. In the early days of George the 
Second's reign the cottage was purchased by one 
Alexander Roberts. How long he lived in it is not 
known, but his daughter (born in 1737) continued 
to do so after her marriage with John Fairman, who 
thus became proprietor of the "Green Dragon," the 
sign adopted for the house. Their daughter Elizabeth 
married William Evance, 1 whose daughter Mary was 
the mother of Mr. J. T. Coling, the present owner 
and occupier of the house which, though slightly 
modernised, is substantially the same building. The 
well, which was close to the house on the west side, 
was filled up by Mr. Coling some fifteen years ago. 
The second well — there used to be two in the 
grounds — was covered by the roadway (Wells Road) 
made about seventy-five years ago. 

Dr. Webster, whose name has been mentioned 
in connection with Dulwich Wells, writes of "the 
little old cottage where the Sydenham Wells are," 
and of two elderly women of the name of Evans, 
who, on his expressing surprise that they had not 
been bought out for building, replied that they 
kept possession as the little property would be bene- 
ficial to their deceased brother's children. He adds : 
" It (the well) is not at all resorted to now for 
medicinal purposes ; but the water is strongly saline, 
similar to that at the quondam ' Beulah Spa,' at 
Streatham Common, and at Epsom." 

Some maintain that the principal spring of the 

1 This seems to be merely a variation of the usual spelling of 
Evans. 

218 




The Dwelliri-g o£ Alexander Roberts at 
SYDENHAM WELLS 

From an old print in possession of Mr. J. T. Coling. 







WELLS COTTAGE, SYDENHAM. 

From a photograph taken in 1903. The well was behind the palings on the left of the 

picture. 



To face p. 218. 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

group on Westwood Common, as it was formerly 
called, lies under the font in the Church of St. Philip 
(built 1865-66). Mr. Coling, however, avers that 
the site of a more important spring is covered by one 
of a row of small houses facing his own in Wells 
Road. 

A Sydenham Directory for 1859, 1 reprinted from 
Chambers's Edinburgh Jotcrnal, contains a descrip- 
tion of the spot from the sympathetic pen of a local 
authoress, in which the dragon is supposed thus to 
soliloquise : "It was in the year 1760 I received the 
last touch of the artist and was declared worthy of 
being exalted to the top of a pole to point out to 
passers-by the original old well of the Sydenham 
waters. These had a great reputation — they were 
a strong tonic — and I have seen them bring back the 
bloom of youth to many a fading cheek. Many, it is 
true, came here, who were sick of nothing but an idle 
life. Age came to drink itself young, dissipation to 
drown weariness,! and imagination to be cured of 
never-ending diseases ; but even these returned re- 
freshed by the early walk, the country breeze, and 
the matins of the birds." Our dragon then relates 
how that the Sydenham Wells were on a memorable 
occasion honoured by the presence of King George 
III., who spent the greater part of a day in the 
cottage (then occupied by Mrs. Elizabeth Evance), 
surrounded by His Majesty's escort of Life Guards), 
who prevented any curious eyes from looking in. 
This royal visit was no mere tradition, as some 
writers would have it, but an undoubted fact. Mr. 
Coling still possesses the table at which the King 

2 Clark's Sydenham and Forest Hill Directory for 1859. 

219 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

sat, and down to a recent date the chair he used, but 
this, having almost perished through age, had to be 
broken up. 

The Wells House continued to attract as a place 
of quiet entertainment, and was afterwards for some 
time the headquarters of the St. George's Bowmen, 
a Society of Archers established in 1789, till the 
enclosure of the greater part of Sydenham Common, 
about 1802, put an end to their practice. 

One of the few eminent residents in Sydenham 
was the poet Campbell, who went there in 1804 
and remained till 1820. His house is described by 
Thorne in his " Handbook of the Environs of 
London" (1876) as on Peak Hill, the third on the 
right before reaching Sydenham Station of a row 
of tall red-brick buildings near Peak Hill Road, 
distinguished from the others by green jalousies at 
the windows. It was still standing in 1885, 
numbered 13, Peak Hill Avenue, and unaltered 
since the poet's occupancy of it, except that the 
gardens about it had been covered with modern 
villas and that its rural character had disappeared. 
The whole of " Gertrude of Wyoming " was written 
here. 1 

Before concluding this sketch of Sydenham Wells, 
it may be mentioned that the Directory already 
quoted contains the name of " Elizabeth Evance, 
Laundress, of Sydenham Wells, Wells Road," which 
would seem to imply that they were still open for 
public use in 1859. The name of this worthy lady 
is enshrined in some not very poetical verses forming 
a pendant to an undated view of the grounds and 

1 u Literary Landmarks of London," L. Hutton, 1892. 

220 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

buildings, but, to judge from the costumes, appearing 
to be Early Victorian : — 

" And there you will find a wild rural retreat, 

From time immemorial called Sydenham Wells, 
With old Betty Evans, complacent and neat, 
And a Gipsy, if wish'd, who your fortune foretells." 

Elizabeth, the daughter of Alexander Roberts and 
grandmother of " Betty " Evans, was buried at 
Lewisham June 20, 1791. A note in the register 
of the parish church shows that she must have 
been a woman of extraordinary height and size ; it 
states : '• She was brought from Sydenham Wells ; 
her coffin was six feet ten inches long, three feet 
five inches wide, and two feet six inches deep." 

Northward of Croydon the hill-forming tendency of 
the London Clay is shown by the well-marked range 
of Norwood, Sydenham, and Forest Hills, rising 
with a long slope from the ground on the east to 
a height — at Beulah Hill — of about 320 feet above 
sea-level. From numerous names suggestive of 
wood or forest in the neighbourhood of Norwood, 
Dulwich, Sydenham, and Penge, it is evident that 
in former times a large proportion of the land here- 
abouts was sylvan. Maps of the middle of the 
eighteenth century, and later, show considerable 
areas still uncleared, among them being the great 
North Wood, lying to the north of the large ecclesias- 
tical town of Croydon. 

The mineral spring at Upper Norwood, afterwards 
known as Beulah Spa, we are rather vaguely told, 
had been "long resorted to by the country folk of 
the neighbourhood," but it does not appear to be 

221 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

known when or how it was first discovered. There 
is also some doubt as to how the name originated. 

o 

On Rocque's Map of London and its Environs (1746) 
Bewly Wood and Bewly's Farm are marked, and 
in a plan of Norwood (1808) Beulah Hill appears 
as Beaulieu Hill. The Spa probably acquired the 
name of " Beulah " to express the uncommon beauty 
and salubrity of the situation — qualities which it 
certainly possessed in no small degree, so that very 
little art was needed to convert the place into an 
ideal garden, with its undulating lawns and sylvan 
spaces, and a lake in the lower grounds to enhance 
the effect. A brochure by Dr. George Hume 
Weatherhead, published in The Mirror of April 
14, 1832, describes the spot as lying "embosomed in 
a wood of oaks, open to the south-west, whose dense 
foliage shelters and protects it, and is now the sole 
vestige of the former haunts of the gypsies." 

It was Mr. John Davidson Smith who first con- 
ceived the idea of laying out this portion of his 
manor of Whitehorse for the purpose of rendering 
available the medicinal properties of the spring, 
which, like Dulwich, Sydenham, and Streatham, was 
strongly impregnated with sulphate of magnesia. The 
conversion of the ground — some 25 to 30 acres in 
extent — into a place of recreation was begun about 
the year 1828. Its position was between Leather 
Bottle Lane (now Spa Hill) and Grange Wood. 
Through this estate carriage-drives and winding 
footpaths were cut ; and from thence extensive 
views were obtained. The buildings in connection 
with the Spa included a very ornate lodge at the 
entrance to the grounds, an orchestra, an octagon- 

222 



-•■ 



■ 






— «««■ 















-,.■". 



a- 






z 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

shaped reading-room, with arcades on either side 
in which refreshments were served, and the Spa 
Well under " a thatched hut built in the form of an 
Indian Wigwam " ; the whole being carried out from 
the designs of Mr. Decimus Burton, the architect. 
One of the seats in the gardens was the favourite 
resting-place of the late (1834) Countess of Essex, 
and from her afterwards called Lady Essex's seat. 

Referring to the spring itself, Dr. Weatherhead 
writes : " It rises about fourteen feet within a circular 
rock-work enclosure ; the water is drawn by a con- 
trivance at once ingenious and novel ; an urn-shaped 
vessel of glass, terminating with a cock of the same 
material, and having a stout rim and cross handle 
of silver, is attached to a thick worsted rope and 
let down into the spring by a pulley, when the 
vessel being taken up full, the water is drawn off 
by the cock." An analysis was made by Professor 
Michael Faraday, who pronounced it to be princi- 
pally distinguished for the quantity of magnesia 
contained in it, resembling, but far surpassing, in 
this respect, the Cheltenham waters. 

A pint of the water yielded solid ingredients in the 
following proportions : — 





Grains. 


Sulphate of Magnesia 


6135 


Chloride of Sodium 


1774 


Muriate of Magnesia 


9-28 


Carbonate of Lime 


7-80 


„ of Soda 


I'QO 



98-07 



It was, in fact, one of the purest and strongest of the 
saline spas in the country. 



223 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

From guide-books to the Spa, of which three are 
preserved in the British Museum, namely, for the 
years 1832, 1834, and 1838, we learn that the price 
of admission was on ordinary days is. and on fete 
days 2S. 6d. ; the yearly subscription for a family 
was three guineas, and for one person a guinea and 
a half. Visitors could either drink the water on the 
premises or have it brought to their lodgings ; the 
water was also delivered in London at two shillings 
per gallon. 

Conveyance from and to Town was effected by a 
service of stage-coaches starting from the " Silver 
Cross" at Charing Cross, and running several times 
a day between that and the Spa. Fares : outside, 
is. 3d. ; inside, 2s. 6d. 

For the entertainment of the visitors during the 
season, a military band played every day from eleven 
till dusk, while for those who had a fancy to trip it 
on the light fantastic toe, there were lawns laid out 
for the purpose. There were also a camera obscura, 
a rosary, an archery ground, and for the more 
aesthetically inclined there was always the view from 
the upper terrace of the beautiful range of the Surrey 
hills lying on the horizon. On festive occasions, such 
as fete days, special amusements were provided of 
a kind to suit the tastes of the company expected. 
The various charitable institutions were also invited 
by the proprietors to hold their fetes here in aid 
of their funds. Some of these were evidently highly 
successful, for on the occasion of a fete champitre held 
at the Spa in the month of July, 1834, about 3,000 
persons were present. But, after all, these open-air 
functions were very dependent for their success upon 

224 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

the state of the weather, for we read that when, 
in July, 1838, a fete was organised for the benefit 
of the Polish refugees, it was so impropitious that 
the Committee who guaranteed it lost upwards of 
^"300, the attendance falling woefully short of ex- 
pectations ; the poor Poles suffering accordingly. 

A Mr. James Fielding appears to have been the 
first manager or lessee when, in August, 183 1, 
Beulah Spa was first opened to the public. News- 
papers of the day mention how rapidly it grew in 
popularity, and became a fashionable rendezvous with 
the beau monde, many personages of rank and distinc- 
tion visiting it. In the season of 1833 Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert and the Earl and Countess of Munster were 
among the visitors. The following year the Duke 
of Gloucester visited the Spa to drink the waters. 

The season of 1835 commenced under the auspices 
of a new proprietor. A Mr. Newman had, it appears, 
already made many improvements, and had more in 
preparation on an extended basis. Great attention 
was paid to the flower-beds, and an immense tent 
was erected for the accommodation of the band. 
The price of admission was, at this time, lowered 
to is. On June 5th of this year (1835) the White- 
horse Estate, including the Spa and other properties, 
were put up to auction. The particulars of sale 
comprise the " Ornamental Grounds, Pump Room, 
Music Room, Gothic and other buildings attached 
to the Spa." The purchaser — Mr. Atkinson — was 
a man of property under whose tasteful direction the 
grounds were thoroughly renovated, the Spa being 
conducted upon the principle of a subscription, 
which seems to have been freely taken up by the 

225 P 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

neighbouring gentry, as well as by members of the 
upper classes in London. Vocal and instrumental 
concerts were a prominent feature of the entertain- 
ments. In 1839 a fete for the Freemasons' Girls' 
School was given here, under the special patronage 
of the Queen Dowager. The concert provided for 
the occasion was of a first-rate order ; Grisi, Persiani, 
Rubini, Ivanhoff, and other operatic celebrities 
lending their assistance. 

The attractions of the Spa were kept constantly 
before the public, through the newspapers, and for 
some few years — for its career was comparatively 
short — all went well. In 1844 the death took place 
of Mr. J. D. Smith, the original proprietor, and 
whether this occurrence reacted upon the place 
detrimentally, or not, the place is described in the 
Times of June 4, 1 851, as having " of late years fallen 
into a languid and deserted condition." About this 
time the widow of the original proprietor recovered 
possession of the grounds and contrived by spirited 
management to revive some of the " ancient glories " 
of the place. The gardens were again thrown open 
for the season and on August 31, 1852, 1 a Fete 
Villageoise was held, showing them to be once more 
in full operation. They were still open in 1854, but 
in the " Pictorial Handbook of London " for that year 
the buildings around the lawn are described as being 
"all now more or less decayed and neglected." 
Wroth (" Cremorne and the later London Gardens," 
I 9°7)> places their close in about the same year. 

1 An admission ticket for the season 1852, signed "T. H. 
Evans, Director of the Fetes/' is preserved in the Rendle 
" London Wells " Collection at the Guildhall Library. 

226 




BEULAH SPA. 
From a photograph taken in 1903. The- well, boarded over, is seen in the foreground. 




STREATHAM (NEW) WELLS HOUSE (ABOUT I90; 
Now used as a dairy farm. (See page 237.) 



To face p. 226. 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

The late Mr. C. H. Spurgeon's residence, " West- 
wood," Beulah Hill, occupied part of the property. 

More recently the Beulah Spa is noticed in a book 
by Mr. J. Corbet Anderson, entitled "The Great 
North Wood." Writing in 1898 he says: "The charm- 
ing grounds of Beulah Spa remain comparatively 
intact. The old paths still wind through the shrub- 
beries and woods ; the octagonal-shaped rustic 
orchestra, overgrown with ivy, still stands not far 
from the once famous well. The well itself, as yet 
uninjured, is about 12 feet deep, and full of water." 
The writer of the present article visited the place in 
the summer of 1903, and found it in much the same 
state as described by Mr. Anderson. The house and 
grounds, reduced to about 6 J acres, and called " The 
Lawns," were put up for sale on July 30, 1903, by 
order of trustees, but the hammer fell to a bid from 
the auctioneer of .£7,000, and the property was 
withdrawn. 1 

There was an advertisement in the Athencsum of 
December 13, 1862, of a hydropathic establishment 
near by. This was succeeded by the Beulah Spa 
Hydro' and Hotel, the proprietor of which, Mr. 
Cephas Barker, recently informed the writer that 
there were several disused springs in their garden 
and one in that of the next house, at that time (1903) 
occupied by Mrs. Spurgeon. 

Several views of Beulah Spa were published in the 
newspapers and periodicals of fifty or sixty years ago, 
and it was the subject of a song, of the sentimental 

1 In July, 1904, the house, with its 20 acres of grounds, &c., 
was again offered for sale, but the investment was withdrawn at 
,£13,200. (Daily Telegraph, July 4, 1904.) 

227 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

kind then in vogue, entitled " I met her at the Beulah 
Spa," the cover of which gives a picture of the grounds 
and buildings. 

There used to be another mineral well about half a 
mile to the north-west of Beulah Spa, at Biggin Hill, 
the water from which gushed up at the rate of seven 
gallons a minute. In 1898 it was closed. The sub- 
joined analysis of water from a well, which is at White 
Lodge, Biggin Hill, formerly the residence of Mr. H. 
Wilson Holman, was kindly supplied by him to the 
writer in 1907. This well, he says, "undoubtedly 
taps the same spring that used to come out at the 
bottom of Biggin Hill, and which was blocked by 
the sanitary authorities in 1898. The site of the 
spring was beyond the small tenement houses at the 
bottom of the hill, and there is still some masonry in 
existence — the end of the culvert where the water 
used to run out into a pond. The reason of its 
being blocked was that it is alleged to have poisoned 
some domestic animal." 

Report on Sample of Well Water taken from Pump in 
Back Court-yard at White Lodge, Biggin Hill, 
Beulah Hill, S.E. 

Ammonia Free ... '033 \ Parts per 100,000. Traces 
Albuminoid ... '025 ) of animal matter. 

Dissolved Solids, Inorganic ... 321*48 Grains per gallon. 
„ „ Organic, &c... 19*94 „ „ „ 

341-42 

Chlorine 23-10 ,, ,, „ 

Nitric Acid (N0 3 ) 0-20 „ „ „ 

Sulphuric Acid (SOj) 140*25 ,, ,, ,, 

Alkalies (Sodium and trace 

potassium) 50*12 „ ,, ,, 

228 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 



Magnesia (MgO) 


9'59 


Grains 


per gallon 


Lime (CaO) 


97'4° 


i) 


)> n 


Sodium Chloride 


38'ii 


» 


m n 


,, Nitrate ... 


0-30 


i) 


V 5) 


,, Sulphate 


= •• I433 


n 


11 It 


Magnesium Sulphate 


2877 


t) 


» 1> 


Calcium ,, 


192*10 


>) 


1) 11 


„ Carbonate 


32-57 


«> 


M )» 



.Rewards. 

Faintly yellow and turbid ; containing a trace of iron, but no 
poisonous metals ; the microscopical residue consists of vegetable 
debris. The character of this water is rather remarkable, con- 
taining a larger quantity of mineral matter than is often found 
in mineral springs. The mineral matter would make it a 
permanent hard water, only a little being destroyed by boiling. 

Organically this water is very impure, and this, in conjunction 
with the large amount of mineral matter it contains, renders it 
absolutely unfit for domestic purposes. 

(Signed) F. B. Burls, A.I.C. 

July 7, 1894. 

It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the mineral 
springs in Streatham have continued to supply their 
waters uninterruptedly for nearly two and a half 
centuries, while most others in and near London 
have either been drained away into the sewers or 
the wells formed from them filled up. The first 
account of the Streatham Wells is given by Aubrey, 
the well-known topographer and antiquary, in his 
" Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey," 
begun in the year 1673. About fourteen years 
before he wrote — namely, in 1659 — there was a 
field under cultivation on the south side of the top 
of Streatham Common, belonging to the Vauxhall 
Manor, in the grounds just below Wellfield House. 
Referring to the soil, Aubrey says: "It is a cold, 
weeping, and rushy clay ground ; in hot weather 
shoots a kind of salt or allum on the clay, as in the 

229 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

lower grounds in North Wilts ; turns milk for a 
posset ; five or six cups is the most they drink, but 
the common dose is but three, which are held 
equivalent to nine at Epsom." Dr. Monro prescribes 
three pints or more for the dose (" Mineral Waters," 
1770, vol. i. p. 135). The circumstances of the 
discovery were these : — 

In the early Spring of 1660 * the land was being 
ploughed, and the horses, floundering in a quagmire, 
suggested the existence of an underground spring. 
" Afterwards at weeding time," to use Aubrey's words, 
11 the weeders being very dry, drinking of it, it 
purged them ; by which accident its medicinal virtue 
was first discovered." The owner of the ground at 
first restricted the use of these waters, but before 
the end of Charles II.'s reign they had come to 
be generally used. Three wells were formed and 
they possessed contrary properties : one acted as an 
emetic, and another was valued as a specific in the 
removal of intestinal worms. 

Among the physicians of the eighteenth century who 
describe Streatham waters is Dr. John Rutty, in his 
elaborate " Treatise on the Medicinal Waters of Great 
Britain and Ireland" (1757), in which he describes 
them as " a weak solution of a salt, partly like sea- 
salt and partly nitrous, with a little sulphur, and a 
greater proportion of absorbent earth than Acton 
water and some others." According to this writer 
the Streatham waters yielded 200 grains of mineral 

1 1659 being the year of discovery, there is here an apparent 
discrepancy ; it may be explained by reminding the reader that 
previous to 1752 the year was held to begin on the 25th of 
March. 

230 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

matter per gallon. He then proceeds to say : 
" Having occasion to go to the wells a twelvemonth 
ago, I found them situated on the declivity of a 
pleasant hill, about one hundred yards from the 
house on Streatham Green [i.e., Streatham Common) ; 
I saw but two, the third had been filled up some 
time. The wells were distant from each other about 
fifteen yards, both are arched, secure from rains." 
A pump was also fixed over the wells to prevent the 
decomposition of the water. 

Mr. Frederick Arnold, in his " History of 
Streatham" (1886), devotes a chapter to the subject 
of these springs, which contains probably all the infor- 
mation now procurable regarding them. Towards the 
end of the seventeenth century they had attained some 
renown. A house was enlarged or rebuilt for the 
accommodation of the numerous visitors, identical 
with the one now called "The Rookery," which is 
the last house at the top of the Common, but which 
at that time was called " Well House." The early 
years of the wells seem to have been somewhat 
chequered by their changing hands rather frequently, 
and the characters of their owners being alternately 
pushing and apathetic. By the commencement of 
the eighteenth century the reputation of Streatham 
Spa, under the regime of an energetic proprietor, 
may be said to have stood at its highest. The 
Common, with its broad lawn of smooth, bright turf 
sloping upwards, was then a fashionable promenade. 
Every Monday and Thursday during the summer 
of 1 70 1, there was a concert at the wells, and 
Streatham was then the scene of much gaiety. 
No doubt some persons of note in those days 

231 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

visited the wells, though their names may be un- 
recorded. 

In 17 17 it appears from an advertisement in the 
Post Boy that the water was on sale at several 
London coffee-houses, namely, at Nando's Coffee 
House, near Temple Bar, Child's Coffee House in 
St. Paul's Churchyard, the Garter Coffee House 
behind the Royal Exchange, and at the " Two Post 
Boys" in Stocks Market. In the year just mentioned 
one Thomas Lambert was proprietor. About fifteen 
years after this an announcement appeared in the 
Daily Journal (June 13, 1732), that Streatham Wells 
House was to be let. It is described therein as being 
"a good brick house, with large stabling, famous for 
excellent waters, and is much frequented. Situate 
on Streatham Common, about six miles from London 
in the road to Croydon. The house being kept open 
by the desire of several gentlemen ; there is good 
accommodation and an ordinary every Sunday. — In- 
quire of Mr. Charles Shuckburgh, Grocer at the 
White Hart in Blowbladder Street, 1 the upper end of 
Cheapside." 

Dr. Rutty states that in 1744 Streatham waters, 
with those of Acton and Dulwich, were most in 
vogue. Assemblies are mentioned as being held in 
connection with Streatham Wells so late as 1755, but 
from that date till the time when Lysons was writing 
his " Environs of London " (1792) nothing of special 
interest is to be found concerning them, except for 
the visits of Dr. Johnson, who from about 1766 down 
to almost the last twenty years of his life, was a 
constant visitor at Thrale Place, whence a pleasant 

1 Now Newgate Street. 
232 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

walk over the Common, which then extended on the 
west side of the high road, brought him to the wells. 

A few years later, that is after about 1792, Mr. 
Arnold says, but without giving his authority, the 
spring was closed. A little building encloses the 
pump over the well, which attains the depth of 35 
feet, the raising apparatus having gone to decay. 1 
This little erection is in the kitchen garden of " The 
Rookery," which is surrounded by high walls, and 
in that way the old spring, of which John Aubrey 
wrote, is enshrined. 

The final closing of the old spring caused 
people to turn their attention to another spring of 
a similar kind, which had been discovered at 
the end of the eighteenth century, about half a 
mile distant on the east side of the village of 
Streatham, at the bottom of Wells Lane, on a part 
of the Common of the Manor of Leigham called Lime 
Common. 

And here it may be noted that most writers, from 
Lysons onwards, fail to make it sufficiently clear that 
the medicinal well in the Valley Road, the only one 
now open, is quite distinct from, and was in fact 

1 The present condition of the old well is thus described by 
Mr. H. Wilson Holman in a letter to the writer : "The old 
Streatham Spa House, at present occupied by Mr. Ernest S. 
Holman, is the freehold property of the trustees of the Coster 
Estate. The well in the kitchen garden is still (1907) in exist- 
ence, with an old lead pump attached. During the tenancy of 
the former owner this water appears to have been used for 
bathing purposes, as there is a circular house over the well and 
pump and a big lead bath. I have not an analysis of this water, 
but believe it is aperient in its action, there being traces of 
Epsom salts and iron. It is reported to be now unfit for drink- 
ing purposes." 

2 33 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

discovered more than a century and a half after, the 
original springs on the Common. Lysons, in the 
second edition of his "Environs of London " (1811), 
speaks of Streatham water as being "still held in 
considerable esteem," but that " there are no accom- 
modations for persons who come to drink it on the 
spot, yet the well is much resorted to by those who 
cannot afford a more expensive journey." These 
remarks convey the impression that he is referring 
to the old wells, were it not for the reference to the 
want of "accommodations," which we know the new 
wells were unable to provide. 

Some time before 1809 tne wells were visited by 
Miss Priscilla Wakefield, authoress of " Perambula- 
tions in London," published in that year, in which 
she writes : " We stopped at Streatham, where we 
tasted of a mineral spring which would probably be 
more highly esteemed for its medicinal qualities by the 
Londoners, if it was not so near home, as the water 
is sent in considerable quantities to the hospitals." 
Here again, relying upon Mr. Arnold's information 
as to the closing of the old wells, it was the new 
spring on Lime Common that Miss Wakefield visited. 
It was not until Walford undertook the revision of 
Brayley's "History of Surrey" (published by Virtue 
and Co. in 1848) that a proper distinction was made 
between the orio-inal well on Streatham Common 
and its successor on Lime Common, the former being 
described as belonging - to the Vauxhall Manor in 
Lower Streatham, and the latter to the Manor of 
Leigham. 

Later on in the nineteenth century, when tea- 
gardens were still resorted to by Londoners, the one 

234 




,-m£m 







I 



lU§L 



'r*r; r»r 



2. 6 




J 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

attached to Streatham (new) Wells House was used 
down to the eighteen-sixties. The house itself is a 
plain but substantial building of brick, faced with 
stucco, and having a bust of /Esculapius over the 
doorway. On the north side of the house, and 
forming a sort of annexe to it, is a room which 
contains the pump over the well, where the water 
can be drunk on the premises. It is sold in bottles, at 
sixpence per gallon ; in glasses at one penny each ; 
and is delivered to all parts of London at one shilling 
per gallon. From inquiries made, it appears that 
the water is not advertised in the local newspapers, 
though casual notices have been published from 
time to time in some of the London papers, e.g., 
the Westminster Gazette, Pall Mall Gazette, Daily 
Mail, and Morning Post. However, according to a 
pamphlet procurable at the wells, the water is 
"delivered to all parts of London daily," and "sent to 
all parts of the United Kingdom " ; also exported to 
Delagoa Bay and Buenos Ayres ; so that a trade is 
still done in it. The following particulars are quoted 
from the pamphlet : " The water rises at a tem- 
perature of 5 2° Fahrenheit. When recently pumped 
up it has a slight odour of sulphur, is sparkling and 
bright, and although it contains much sulphate of 
magnesia, it is not unpleasant to the taste ; on the 
contrary, it leaves behind it a freshness which is 
grateful to the palate. Although it contains quite 
an appreciable amount of iron, causing an ochreous 
deposit to form upon the pumping apparatus, it 
cannot properly be classed as a chalybeate, like 
Hampstead Wells, for example. 

An analysis of the water was made in April, 1895, 

235 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

by Messrs. Redwood and de Hailes, analytical 
chemists, of Red Lion Square, Holborn, with the 
following result : — 

Sample of Mineral Water from the Well at Streatham, in the 
possession of Messrs. Curtis Brothers, Valley Road. 



Magnesium Sulphate .. 


. 415-10 


grains per gallon. 


Sodium Chloride 


• I9'65 


>> 


n it 


Ferrous Carbonate 


3"°4 


i> 


II 11 


Potassium Chloride .. 


. Traces 




Jf >> 


Calcium Carbonate 


76-67 


ii 


>» J> 


Sodium Carbonate 


i8'oo 


n 


II II 



The water is naturally charged with Carbonic Acid. Taken 
internally, it would act as a mild aperient. 

Redwood & de Hailes. 

The pamphlet goes on to describe the effect this 
water has upon the system : " The late Dr. Baillie 
found it a most valuable remedy in liver complaints 
and indigestion, especially in jaundice and bilious 
attacks. Its action as a tonic is not mechanical ; it 
restores strength and vigour to the weakened frame 
by a direct operation on the system in general, and 
by improving the quality of the blood." Without 
attributing to the Streatham waters any marvellous 
cures, they may still be credited with the power of 
restoring an impaired state of the digestive organs, 
which, considering the importance of their function, 
is no slight merit. 

The continued pureness and immunity from con- 
tamination of the well is doubtless due to its isolated 
position, the premises standing in their own grounds, 
apart from the nearest buildings in the Valley Road. 

Locally there seems to be only a very slight 
demand for the water ; a few regular customers there 

236 




" THE ROOKERY," STREATHAM COMMON. 

In the back garden is the medicinal well. From a photograph 
taken about iyoo. 



To face p. 237. 



Outlying Spas and Wells of South London 

may be, and occasionally a chance caller will drop 
in to taste the water, perhaps more through curiosity 
than from any intention of becoming a regular 
drinker. There would therefore appear to be little 
inducement to the proprietors to make any special 
efforts to attract customers. Such being the condition 
of affairs, there is small hope of any material increase 
in the local demand for these waters. 

With the object of ascertaining the earliest mention 
of these later wells, an exhaustive search was made 
by the writer some four years ago in the Streatham 
parish rate-books, back to the year 1780, covering 
a period of nearly 125 years, and though there was 
no great difficulty in identifying the house, yet in 
none of the books is any mention made of the 
mineral well, for, besides the house itself, only 
offices, outhouses, sheds, and meadow-land are par- 
ticularised. 

The Curtis family have, according to the rate- 
books, occupied these premises since about the year 
1875, when Thomas Curtis took them over from 
one Nathaniel Hibbart, James Coster's executors 
being the owners. Thomas was succeeded by Mrs. 
Curtis (presumably his widow), after whom the 
brothers Curtis had possession, which they still retain. 

One of the earliest, if not quite the earliest, map 
on which the existing spring is marked, is by W. 
Faden, 1810 : the words "Streatham Wells" are 
inserted in it just against the hill of Lime Common. 

There is in the Guildhall Library an Indian-ink 
drawing of the house, dated 1831, and on the walls 
of the Pump Room hang two or three water-colour 
sketches of the house. 

237 



CHAPTER IV 

WELLS AT RICHMOND AND EAST SHEEN 

Richmond Wells — Saline spring — Noticed by Dr. Benjamin 
Allen in 1699 — House of entertainment — Balls and 
concerts advertised — Dissipated company at the wells — 
Raffling and card-playing — The place eventually purchased 
by the Misses Houblon — Well at East Sheen, adjoining 
Palewell Park. 

ABOUT the year 1689, or, according to some 
writers, two or three years earlier, a saline 
spring was discovered at Richmond in grounds 
subsequently occupied by Cardigan House, 1 which 
stands on the slope of the hill going towards the 
town. 

Dr. Benjamin Allen, in his " Natural History 
of the Chalybeate Waters of England" (1699), 
mentions, among other purging or aperient waters, 
this one at Richmond, but without giving any par- 
ticular account of it, merely saying : " This water 
is a level spring ; the wells are on the side of the 

1 Cardigan House was once the residence of the Earl of 
Cardigan, and afterwards of Miss Roberts, who was occupying 
it in 1842, and who left it to her relative, Mr. James Campbell, 
from whom it was purchased by Captain Willis, one of the 
Conservators of the River Thames. (Chancellor's " History and 
Antiquities of Richmond," 1894.) 

238 



Wells at Richmond and East Sheen 

hill a few rods from the River Thames, in a brown 
loamy clay, and are about nine feet to the bottom 
of the water. . . . This water purgeth well, but I 
think scarce so much as Epsom and Acton, but more 
smoothly." 

It was not until about six or seven years after the 
discovery of the spring that a house of entertain- 
ment was built in conjunction with it. This was in 
1695-96 : Assembly, Card, and Raffling Rooms were 
added, and the place received a considerable amount 
of public patronage. An advertisement in the London 
Gazette for April 20-23, 1696, affords some notion of 
the appearance of the place just before its opening. 
It runs thus: " The New Wells on Richmond Hill 
will be compleated for the reception of Company this 
following May. There is a large and lofty Dining 
Room, broad walks, open and shady, near 300 feet 
long, cut out of the descent of the Hill, with a 
prospect of all the country about." There were two 
entrances, one in the lower road leading to Petersham, 
the other about where the lodge and entrance-gates to 
Cardigan House now are. 

The management lost no time in providing amuse- 
ment for their patrons. An advertisement which 
appeared in the Post Boy for June 11, 1696, was as 
follows: "At Richmond New Wells a Consort of 
Musick, both Vocal and Instrumental, will be per- 
formed on Monday next (13th) at Noon, by principal 
Hands and the best Voices, composed new for the 
day by Mr. Frank ; the songs will be printed and sold 
there." Although not expressly stated, this was 
probably the occasion of the inauguration of the 
wells, for no advertisement prior to this date 

239 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

appears in any newspaper of that day ; that of the 
previous April merely set forth the attractions of the 
spot. 

The success of the new speculation would appear 
to have far exceeded the expectations of the pro- 
prietor, for soon afterwards such a concourse of 
persons of quality attended that the price of admission 
was requested to be doubled, to keep the company 
select : this increase, however, made it only sixpence 
each person ; but probably this sum did not include 
any of the entertainments, the charge for concert 
tickets being, we are told, five shillings each. In the 
London Gazette for April 5-8, 1697, the wells were 
for some unexplained reason, advertised for disposal 
by purchase or lease. 

From the early years of the eighteenth century 
advertisements appeared in the public press at pretty 
frequent intervals : in these the principal attractions 
held out during the first five-and-twenty years or so 
were musical entertainments and dancing. Games of 
chance, as was customary at these resorts, were freely 
indulged in by those who had either passed the age 
for active amusements or lacked the taste for them. 

Referring to the Postman of August 9, 1 701, we 
read that a concert was to be held in the Great 
Room " to hear a Mr. Abel sing alone to the harp- 
sichord." Later in the evening there was to be 
dancing. In the same paper for August 10, 1703, is 
advertised a " Great Consort of Music, beginning at 5 
and ending at 7, because of the dancing after." Tickets 
at five shillings each were to be had at White's 
Chocolate House and Garraway's Coffee House. 

Some of these advertisements have a postscript to 

240 



Wells at Richmond and East Sheen 

them containing hints about the tides upon the river, 
such as that "the Tyde of Flood begins at i o'clock 
in the afternoon and flows till 5, ebbs till 12 for the 
conveniency of returning." This reads rather oddly 
when one thinks of the Thames of to-day, which, 
except in the summer months, is comparatively 
deserted, save for a few barges and steam-tugs ; 
certainly no one thinks of using it at night. The 
waterway was chosen in those days because it offered 
a far easier, quicker, and even safer way, than the 
roads, which shortly after the Hanoverian accession 
must have been truly abominable, to say nothing of 
the risk of encountering footpads. In a work called 
"A Journey through England in 1724," Richmond 
Wells is mentioned thus : The author, one Mackay, 
says, " There are balls at Richmond Wells every 
Monday and Thursday evening during the summer 
season." The Crafts77ian of June 11, 1730, contains 
a notification " to all gentlemen and ladies that have 
a mind either to raffle for gold chains, equipages, or 
any other curious toys, and fine old china ; and like- 
wise play at quadrille, ombre, whist, &c, and on 
Saturdays and Mondays during the summer season 
there will be dancing as usual." The dissipation here 
indicated went gaily on, and dating from its com- 
mencement' in 1696, the wells enjoyed a career of 
success and popularity for above half a century. 
Like Ranelagh and Bagnigge Wells, and indeed most 
of the pleasure gardens, breakfasts, as well as dinners 
and teas, were supplied at the Richmond Wells. The 
fashion of the public breakfast, now so entirely for- 
gotten, was brought to London from Bath, Tunbridge 
Wells, and Epsom. Tea and coffee were served at 

241 Q 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

this meal, which is specially mentioned in advertise- 
ments issued in May and June, 1748, when a Mr. W. 
Knight was proprietor of the wells. In 1750 they 
appear to have reached the summit of their prosperity, 
and from about this period their rather rapid decline 
may be dated. Assemblies were still made known in 
1755, and also in 1756, at which time a Mr. Williams 
was proprietor. A change for the worse seems now 
to have stolen over the tastes and pursuits of the 
visitors. There was much card-playing but little 
water-drinking ! The wealthier visitors soon began 
to withdraw their support ; the prices of admission 
were lowered in order to attract a lower class of 
customers, and these soon obtained for the place an 
unenviable notoriety. The noise and tumult pre- 
vailing each night became a nuisance to the neigh- 
bourhood. The place was eventually (in 1775) 
purchased by two maiden ladies — the Misses 
Houblon — founders of the charity known as the 
Houblon Almshouses in the Marsh Gate Road, 
Richmond. 

Dr. John Evans, writing about Richmond in 1825, 
says : " Some of the oldest inhabitants of Richmond 
recollect there being a house and assembly room 
adjoining the medicinal well." A large antiquated 
building in the Lower Road was pulled down a few 
years before 1866, which was said by an old in- 
habitant to have originally formed a portion of the 
wells establishment. The rooms of this building, 
from their peculiar construction and style, had 
evidently been originally intended for a house of 
public entertainment. They bore traces of a 
structure of a superior character, being well finished 

242 



Wells at Richmond and East Sheen 

and ornamented with heavy cornices. An old pile, 
consisting of stabling and coach-houses, &c, cleared 
away about 1861-62 for the purpose of building the 
row of small houses known as River Dale Terrace, 
doubtless formed a small remaining portion of a much 
larger erection for putting up the horses and vehicles 
of the nobility and others who came to the wells at 
one time in great numbers, especially on gala nights. 
With the exception of these buildings, all the others 
were demolished, and according to Mr. Richard 
Crisp, 1 about the year 1780 Richmond Wells as a 
place of entertainment had ceased to exist. 

Dr. Evans, 2 who has been already mentioned, says: 
"There is no chalybeate spring now at Richmond, 
properly speaking; but there is in the New Park,3 at 
the top of the hill, a bubbling up of water, which 
running down into the adjacent vale, exhibits indica- 
tions of an ochreous description, which," he naively 
adds, "might be gathered into a basin, and become 
subservient to the health of visitants." 

In reply to an inquiry made by the writer about 
three years ago as to the existence of the well in 
the grounds of Cardigan House, the information 
given by Miss Willis, who resides there, was that 
frequent search had been made for it during the 
last thirty years, but without a successful result. 

A search through the collections of local literature 

1 "Richmond and its Inhabitants from the Olden Time," 
Richard Crisp, 1866. 

2 " Richmond and its Vicinity," by John Evans, LL.D., second 
edition, 1825. 

3 This answers to Richmond Park, as now known. The Old 
Deer Park adjoins Kew Gardens. 

243 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

and prints at the Richmond Public Library, kindly 
made for the writer by the Librarian — Mr. Albert 
A. Barkas — failed to discover any picture of the 
Richmond Wells Buildings ; but it is of course 
possible that some representation of them may exist 
in private hands. 

At East Sheen, in the north-west corner of 
Palewell Common (known locally as the " Donkey 
Common "), adjoining Palewell Park, is a well, the 
water of which, some forty years ago, was, in the 
recollection of an old inhabitant, much used by 
people of the neighbourhood for bathing the eyes ; 
and for the legs, especially of children, probably 
those having skin complaints. The spring, which 
was reputed to contain some mineral constituents 
(among them probably a little iron) helps to feed a 
pond close by. There is now (1908) no apparatus 
for drawing the water, which, when in an undisturbed 
state, is clear and pure. 

Many of the eighteenth-century spas and tea- 
gardens lasted almost to our own time — at least 
those of us who are beyond middle age — but the 
original character of such places as Bagnigge Wells 
(closed 1 841), White Conduit House (closed 1849), 
and Highbury Barn (closed 1871) became greatly 
altered. Beulah Spa, the last of the London " Spas " 
{circa 1831-54), had a shorter life than either of 
the places just named. Its amusements were in 
every way characteristic of a later period ; the 
changes in the manners and morals of the age since 
the reigns of Anne and the Georges being doubt- 
less accountable for this. 

244 



PART III 

CONDUIT SYSTEM OF WATER-SUPPLY 



CHAPTER I 

THE LONDON BASIN, SHALLOW WELLS, CITY 
CONDUITS 

Geology of the London Basin — Tyburn Conduit — Population 
of London — Great Conduit in Chepe — Pay of workmen — 
Little Conduit— Conduit at Stocks Market— The Standard 
opposite the end of Honey Lane — John Lydgate — Pageants 
— Catherine of Aragon's State entry into London — The 
Tonne, or Tun, upon Cornhill — Stow's explanation of the 
name — Charterhouse, provided its own water-supply — 
Conduits at London Wall, Coleman Street, Bishopsgate. 

THE opening chapter of "Early London," the 
latest volume of Sir Walter Besant's "Survey of 
London," written by Professor Bonney, invites the 
reader to picture the valley of the Thames "as it was 
more than two thousand years ago, when the uplands 
north of the river were covered by a dense forest, 
and the ' Andreds Wald ' (as it was afterwards 
named) — a vast sheet of scrub, woodland, and waste 
stretching from the Sussex Coast to the slopes of the 
Kentish Downs." Through the valley the Thames 
must have flowed " in a channel broader but straighter 
than its present one, a channel which is now indi- 
cated by a tract of alluvial land a few feet below 
the level of the valley, and but little above high- 
water mark. . . . The most marked indication of 

247 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

this alluvial plain begins about a mile below London 
Bridge. Here the left bank of the river is formed, 
as it has been from the bend at Hungerford Bridge, 
by a terrace ranging at first from about 25 to 40 feet 
above mean tide level, a most important physical 
feature, for it determined the site of London." 1 But 
the choice of the site was made primarily because 
of the river, for without the Thames there would 
have been no city ; the silent highway of its broad 
waters bears the commerce which sustains the city, 
and has enabled it to develop into the market-place 
of the world. 

The greater part of old London and the many 
villages 2 now incorporated in modern London were 
built on the valley gravel and loam (brick-earth) ; 
ancient alluvial deposits of the Thames and its 
tributaries, occupying tracts above the level of the 
marshland. The residential sites were naturally 
chosen where a supply of drinking-water could readily 
be obtained from springs and brooks or by means 

1 The height of the ground on the Middlesex side is not 
inconsiderable, though it is difficult to realise, as the physical 
features are so much masked by buildings. Following a line 
from east to west along the top of what was once a low cliff 
overhanging the river, the highest points marked on the 
Ordnance Survey Map of London (ed. 1894-96) are these : On 
Tower Hill 42-3 feet above the mean level of the sea ; Grace- 
church Street 56"8 feet ; Royal Exchange (south side) 507 feet ; 
St, Paul's Churchyard (north-east angle of Cathedral) 57*9 feet ; 
Newgate Street (corner of St, Martin's-le-Grande) 59*8 feet ; 
Fleet Street (at Fetter Lane) 50*8 feet, &c. (Edinburgh Review, 
October, 1908). 

2 Entick (" History and Survey of London," 1766) puts these 
at 49, together with one city (Westminster) and one borough 
(Southwark). 

248 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

of wells. Obtaining supplies from the latter by the 
bucket and windlass was, however, often attended 
with considerable difficulty on account of the great 
depth to the source of the water, except in the case 
of shallow wells, 1 long used for collecting moderate 
supplies of water, where a permeable stratum, such as 
the gravel, overlies an impermeable stratum, such as 
the London Clay. 

A few remarks on the geological structure of the 
London area may serve to render the subject more 
intelligible. London is situated on what is termed in 
geological language a "basin" — the "London Basin." 
The solid foundation, at some depth underground 
(150 to 300 feet, and less in places) is composed of the 
chalk, a formation here about 650 feet in thickness. 
This it is which constitutes the so-called basin, whose 
broad rim comes to the surface in the Chiltern Hills 
on the north and north-west, and in the North Downs 
on the south. The hollow of the London Basin is 
filled by a series of sedimentary formations which 
belongs to the period called Eocene and is classed 
as Tertiary. Conforming generally to the gentle 
fold into which the chalk has been bent, they consist 
of a lowermost group of sands, pebble-beds, and 
clays, known as the Lower London Tertiaries, over- 
lain by a great mass of clay, termed the London 
Clay, and followed by a group of sands with thin 

1 Shallow wells catch the ground and subsoil water ; they are 
generally under 50 feet deep, the water is hard, nearly always 
impure, and often foul from sewage. They rarely supply 
enough water for more than a few houses, and the cost 
of pumping being generally prohibitive the water has to be 
carried by hand. 

249 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

clayey bands known as the Bagshot Sand, which in 
London itself caps the higher grounds of Hampstead 
and Mighgate. Of these strata the London Clay 
occupies the most extensive area, the thinner group 
below (Lower London Tertiaries) appearing at the 
surface over a comparatively narrow belt. 1 North of 
the Thames the London Clay, overlain by gravel, is 
arranged in two well-marked terraces, each with a 
pronounced declivity bounding it on the south, while 
northwards it dies off imperceptibly as the clay rises 
to the surface. The lower terrace is bounded by 
the steep fall from the Strand to the Thames, and 
here the spring at the old Roman Bath still exists 
to mark the junction of gravel and clay. These 
terraced gravels were, in fact, the great water-bearing 
strata of London. 2 

Most villages, like those of old in the London 
area, have been built on porous subsoils from which 
the water-supply was readily obtained, and in most 
cases such shallow sources became exposed to the 
worst forms of contamination. The soakage from 
stables, from cess-pits, and in some instances the 
infiltration of the decaying matter from burial- 
grounds, had rendered many of the shallow wells 
actually poisonous ; clear, sparkling, even palatable, 
though the water might be, there was often "death 
in the cup." A pump, the water of which was much 
esteemed, stood by the wall of the churchyard of 

1 For the above information the writer is indebted to u Soils 
and Subsoils of London and its Neighbourhood," by Horace B. 
Woodward, 2nd cd., 1906. 

2 A. Morlcy Davies, "London's First Conduit System," London 
and Middlesex Archaeological Society Transactions, 1907. 

250 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

St. Giles-in-the-Fields in High Street (south of New 
Oxford Street). The water became infected, and the 
cholera ravaged the immediate neighbourhood. 

Outside the City limits the growth of London was, 
as pointed out by Sir Joseph Prestwich, 1 restricted, 
till the regular establishment of waterworks, to the 
parts possessing superficial water-bearing strata, as 
at Chelsea, Kensington, and Hammersmith in the 
west ; at Clapham and Camberwell southwards ; 
Bow and Hackney eastwards ; and northwards at 
Clerkenwell, Bloomsbury, Marylebone, and Padding- 
ton. Here and there only, beyond the main body 
of the gravel, there were a few outliers, such as those 
at Islington and Highbury, and there houses were 
to be found. The clay area of Camden Town, 
Kentish Town, Maida Vale, Kilburn, and other tracts 
north of King's Cross and Marylebone, were not 
populated until a supply of drinking-water from a 
distance was brought in conduits. 

Within the City itself, as the population 2 gradually 

1 Address to Geol. Soc, 1H72, Quart. Journ. Gcol. Soc, 
vol. xxviii. p. liii. 

2 With all his fulness of detail, Stow makes no attempt to sum 
up the number of inhabitants. Some notion of the si/e of 
London in the Middle A^es may be formed from contemporary 
writers, from whom it appears that in 1199 London had 40,000 
inhabitants. A century and a half later— namely, in 134.9 —the 
number could not have been more than 50,000, this estimate 
bein^ in keeping with the returns of the poll-tax in 1377 (Sub- 
sidy Rolls). During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there 
was no very appreciable change, but in Elizabethan London 
the increase was considerable ; in a normal year like 1580, 
the baptisms were one-fourth more than the burials. Under the 
Stuart Kings the population increased still more rapidly, partly 
due to the influx of people from the country and abroad, 

251 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

increased, a plentiful supply of wholesome water was 
more than ever needed, and consequently the citizens, 
as Stow expresses it, were " forced to seek sweet 
waters abroad." In London, as in other cities, the 
obligation of furnishing water rested with the 
Corporation. Accordingly, in the 20th year of 
Henry III. (1236) they obtained leave to construct 
conduits, bringing water from springs in the Manor 
of Tyburn, at that time belonging to Gilbert de 
Sanford, on the site now known as Stratford Place, 
Oxford Street. Royal letters patent, bearing date 
1236, set forth that this grant was "for the profit 
of the City, and good of the whole realm thither 
repairing : to wit, for the poor to drink, and the rich 
to dress their meat " — quaint terms which often recur 
in subsequent documents alluding to the Tyburn 
source of supply. 

City records mention the Tyburn Conduit (la 
funtayne de Tybourne) in the year 1237, when a 
convention or compact was entered into between the 
citizens of London and merchants of Amiens, Corby, 
and Nele, in Picardy. In return for the privilege 
of landing and warehousing woad and other com- 
modities within the City, which, until the compact of 

who filled up the gaps made by the " plagues," so that the 
population in 1661 from the contemporary estimate of Graunt 
was 460,000, though only one-fifth of this amount — namely, 
92,000 — was in the City within the walls ; the rest was distributed 
in the larger out-parishes and liberties. (See " The Popula- 
tion of Old London," by Dr. C. Creighton, in Blackwood's 
Magazine, April, 1891.) Gregory King's estimate for 1694 is 
530,000, but probably subject to the same distribution as 
Graunt's ; Richman (1701) 674,000 ; and Maitland (1738) 
726,000. 

252 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

1237, they could only sell on board their own vessels, 
the merchants, besides an annual payment of fifty 
marks, gave ,£100 sterling "au Conduyt del ewe 
(de l'eau ?) de la funtayne de Tybourne amener de 
la cite de Loundres " — then in course of building. 1 

Many conduits, 2 as Stow and others call them 
(but more properly conduit-houses), were set up in 
various thoroughfares. There were in all nine 
conduits or bosses 3 in different parts of the City, 
but until late in the sixteenth century they were 
all on the western side of the Wallbrook ; east 
of that stream, the City was supplied by wells, 
especially by one opposite the future site of the 
Royal Exchange. The " Anglo-Norman Chronicles 
of London " (p. 237) mention one of these conduits in 
the following passage: "This year (i273~74) came 
King Edward I. and his Wife from the Holy Land, 
and were crowned at Westminster on the Sunday 
next after the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady 
(August 15th) ; and the Conduit in Chepe ran all the 
day with red and white wine to drink, for all such as 
wished." 

The Accounts of the " Masters " or Keepers of 
the Great Conduit in Chepe for the year 1350 

1 Liber Custumarum, pp. 64-66. 

2 In early writings and records " conduit " is used in a double 
sense, meaning both the channel or pipe for the conveyance 
of water and the structure from which it was distributed or 
made to issue. 

3 Stow tells us that Boss Alley in Lower Thames Street was 
so called from " a bosse of spring water, continually running, 
which standeth by Billinsgate against this alley." This and 
another by St. Giles's Church without Cripplegate were built 
about the year 1423. 

253 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

touch on many points of interest. 1 They show that 
the conduit was maintained and kept in repair by 
a rate levied on the houses of Chepe and the 
Poultry, and that this rate, for two years' con- 
sumption, varied from ios. to 13s. /\.d. The masters 
also account for having expended various sums for 
mending pipes ; for cleansing and washing the 
fountain-head ; for closing and opening the Conduit 
(which was doubtless closed and locked up at night) ; 
hire of two vadlets 2 twenty-four days to collect the 
money for the tankard, each man receiving 6d. per 
day. The pay of the workmen was 8d. per day, with 
a penny for drink. These donations for drink to 
workmen are called in Letter Book G, fol. iv. 
(27th Edward III.) " none-chenche," meaning probably 
" noon's quench." 

The Conduit of London, which apparently was not 
distinguished as the " Great" Conduit until the build- 
ing of the " Little " Conduit, is named also in a grant 
made by " Alice, late Wife of William de Chobham 
(Cobham) of the Vill of Tybourne to Adam 
Fraunceys, Mayor, and the Commonalty of the City, 
and their successors, of a parcel of land 24 feet 
square, situate atte Cherchende in the said vill of 
Tybourne, to serve for a fountain-head to the Conduit 
of London, together with a right to dig, lay cisterns 
and small subterranean ways under 40 feet of her 
land, adjacent to the aforesaid parcel of land." The 
deed is dated February 20th, 28th Edward III. (1355). 
Rymer ("Fcedera," xi. 29) contains a copy of the 

1 Riley's " Memorials," pp. 264, 265. 

2 Vadlet, a superior servant. 

254 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

grant, and there is a reference to it in the Liber 
Albus, Letter Book G, 181. 

The Great Conduit was situate at the Poultry end 
of Cheapside, opposite Mercers' Hall and Chapel — 
a spot which had been previously occupied by the 
hospital of St. Thomas de Aeon. In appearance 
it was a long and low stone building, battlemented, 
and enclosing a large leaden cistern, the water of 
which issued from a cock into a square stone basin at 
the eastern end. It is generally said to have been 
built about the year 1285, but it is mentioned as the 
Conduit in St. Mary Colechurch in West Cheape 
in 1 26 1 (Cal. Charter Rolls, ii. 3S), and again in an 
allusion to the fraternity of St. Thomas the Martyr 
"at the Conduit of London," in 1278 (Cal. Wills, 
i. 29, jo). The first building of the conduit, 
authorised in 1236, was begun in 1245 (Ann. Lond., 
44). * The pipes conveying water to the Great 
Conduit were, according to Stow, laid in sections 
from Paddington to Cheapside (the details of the 
route are given in subsequent pages in the account 
of the Bayswater Conduit). In the year 1479, the 
19th Edward IV., the Great Conduit was rebuilt 
and enlarged by Thomas Ham, one of the sheriffs. 

In the 14th year of King Richard II. (1390) 
certain "substantial men of the Ward of Farndone 
(Farringdon) within, and other citizens of London, 
for the common advantage and easement of the same, 
at their own costs and charges," decided to build a 
water-conduit near to the Church of St. Michael-le- 
Ouerne in the West Chepe, to be supplied by the 

1 Stow's " Survey," text of 1603, C. L. Kingsford 1908, vol. ii., 
Notes p. 331. 

255 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

great pipe of the conduit opposite to St. Thomas 
of Aeon. 1 Permission to do this was granted by 
the Mayor and Aldermen, provided that the pipes 
should not be injurious to the Great Conduit (for 
which three citizens gave security), but if they 
proved to be harmful, then the said pipes should 
be removed, &c. 

Half a century later the Little Conduit was built. 
Stow relates the circumstances in these words : 
" At the east end of this Church (of St. Michael-ad- 
Bladum, or at the Corne 2 — corruptly at the Quern), 
in place of the olde Crosse, is now a water conduit 
placed. William Eastfield, Mayor, the 9th of 
Henry VI. (1431) at the request of divers Common 
Councels, granted it so to be ; whereupon in the 
19th of the same Henry, about the year 1442, one 
thousand marks was granted towards the works of 
this Conduit, and repayring of the other Conduits : 
this is called the little Conduit in West Cheape by 
Powles (Paul's) gate." 

On part of the site of the Church of St. Michael, 
after the Fire of London in 1666, was erected a 
conduit for supplying the neighbourhood with water ; 
but being found unnecessary, it was, with others, 
pulled down in 1727. 

The Little Conduit by the Stocks Market was 
built about the year 1500. Stow says: "Some 
distance west is the Royall Exchaunge 

1 The Hospital of St. Thomas of Aeon (or Acre) was 
surrendered the 30th of Henry VIII. (1539) and purchased by 
the Mercers ; it was used in Stow's time as a chapel and free 
grammar school. 

2 So called because there was at one time a corn market here, 
stretching westwards to the Shambles (Newgate Street). 

256 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

and so down to the little Conduit ... by 
the Stockes Market, and this is the south side of 
Three neeuie btreet." 



" Come along presently by the p — g-Conduit, 
With two brave drums and a Standard bearer." x 

In "Henry VI.," Pt. 2, Act IV. Sc. vi., Cade 
says : " Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And 
here, sitting upon London-stone, I charge and 
command that, of the city's cost, the p — g-conduit 
run nothing but claret wine this first year of our 
reign." 

The appearance of the buildings in the neighbour- 
hood, and of the Little Conduit, in the sixteenth 
century, are represented in a curious plan of the 
western end of West Cheap, dated 1585, a copy of 
which is in Wilkinson's " Londina Illustrata" (18 19) ; 
the age of its erection and decoration, that author 
observes, is expressed by the royal supporters of 
Henry VI. and his Queen, Margaret of Anjou — the 
antelope and eagle with the Tudor dragon — on the 
heads of the buttresses. 2 The plan also exhibits the 
direction of the pipes laid for the supply of both the 
reservoirs in West Cheap, the Little Conduit being 
probably also furnished from the same springs at 
Paddington. The tower at the north-west corner of 
this building was perhaps intended for raising the 

1 Middleton, in " A Chaste Maid in Cheapside," Act III., Sc. ii. 

2 According to the best authorities, Henry VI, had for 
supporters two antelopes argent, There is no mention of either 
eagle or dragon among the badges or cognisances of this king 
and queen. The heraldic figures on the buttresses may have 
been added in a later reign. 

257 R 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

water to the height of its original level, whence it fell 
down again into the cistern in the larger building. 
Two spouts or taps are shown from which the water 
could be drawn, and round the base of the structure 
are represented several of the ancient London water- 
tankards. 1 The Little Conduit was partly re-erected 
or preserved, since Strype 2 says : " Where the church 
of St. Michael-le-Ouerne stood (it was burnt down 
by the Great Fire and not rebuilt) is a Conduit, 
not yet finished, but designed for some magnificent 
structure." The following further notice of this build- 
ing appears in the " Magnse Britanniae Notitia," 
by John Chamberlayne : 3 "The obelisk in Cheapside 
is a piece of work designed and begun to be erected by 
the City at the west end of Cheapside, where, before the 
Fire of London stood the Church of St. Michael-le- 
Querne. It is to be, if finished as was intended, an 
obelisk upon a pedestal, the height to be 160 feet, and 
made in imitation of those formerly in Rome." In 
the 31st Edition of Chamberlayne's work (1735) this 
passage is wanting, which probably points out the 
time when the idea of erecting any building upon this 
spot was finally abandoned. Besides the two conduits 
in West Cheap there was also a third public reservoir 
in the same street called the " Standard," the site of 
which was in the centre of the road opposite the end 
of Honey Lane. The original object of the Standard 
appears to have been a monument erected at the place 
for public executions, of which Stow gives several 



1 " Londina Illustrata," R. Wilkinson (1819), vol. i. 

2 Strype's "Stow's Survey" (1720), vol i., chap. viii. 

3 29th Edition, 1728, Pt. I. bk. iii. p. 251. 

258 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

instances between 1293 and 1461. 1 In 1430 John 
Wells, Mayor, caused it to be furnished with "a small 
cistern of fresh water, having one small cock continually 
running, when the same was not turned or locked." 
His design was finished by his executors, who 
bought a licence of Henry VI. to convey water to it. 
The Standard of that period was almost unquestion- 
ably of wood, the King's patent, issued in 1442, for 
the rebuilding of it, with a conduit in the same, 
stated that it should be strongly built of stone. Its 
appearance in the seventeenth century is shown in the 
picture representing the procession of Marie de' Medici 
through Cheapside, when she came to visit her 
daughter, Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., in 
1 638.2 It is possible that the figures with which the 
Standard is decorated were erected for the occasion, 
since the Cross and Conduits of West Cheap were 
always anciently utilised as stations for pageants 3 in 
the triumphs, shows, and royal processions, called 
" ridings," through the City. Hence we find that of 
the six pageants displayed in celebration of King 
Henry V.'s home-coming after Agincourt (1415), two 
were on London Bridge, one at the conduit in 
Cornhill, another at the Great Conduit in Cheap, a 
fifth at Cheap Cross, and the sixth at the Little 
Conduit. The roofs of the conduits, which were 

1 Strype's " Stow," 1720, chap iii. 35. 

2 From La Serres' " Entree Royalle de la Reyne Mere du 
Roy tres Chrestien dans la Ville de Londres," 1638. 

3 The original meaning of pageant has become obscured 
through being used to express the play itself, whereas it was 
really a movable stage or platform on which the play was 
presented. The "pageants" consisted of buildings of timber, 
sometimes in imitation of brickwork. 

259 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

generally either castellated or enclosed by an orna- 
mental gallery, were usually filled with choristers or 
minstrels. John Lydgate, who was deviser and writer 
of verses for Court and civic ceremonies in the first 
half of the fifteenth century, and whose verses give 
one of the best descriptions of a mediaeval civic pageant, 
wrote a poem (it was really an official programme in 
verse) on the occasion of King Henry VI. 's reception 
in London, in February, 1432, on his return from 
France. The Great Conduit is alluded to in the 
following extract : — 

"The King fforth rydyng entryed into Chepe anoon, 
A lusty place, a place of all delytys, 
Kome to the conduyt, wher, as crystal stoon, 
The water Ranne like welles of paradys, 
The holsome lykour, ffull Riche and off greate prys, 
Like to the water of Archedeclyne, 1 
Which by miracle was turned into wyne." 2 

Cheapside, meaning market-place, was in those 
days a large square, reaching back as far as the 
present Honey Lane and other streets in a straight 
line with it, and with booth-lined streets branching 
away as far as the Guildhall and Basing Hall. All 
through the Plantagenet times, " the golden age of 
chivalry," the great square of the " Chepe " was 
the scene of tournaments and martial pageants. 3 

1 Archedeclyne — erroneous form of Architricline, the triple 
couch of a banquet-room. The " ruler " of a feast. 

2 u Chronicles of London," edited by C. L. Kingsford, 1906, 
in which the poem is printed in extenso. 

3 " Mediaeval London," Benham and Welch, 1901. 
Numerous instances of these pageants, with references to 

the original authorities, will be found in Nichol's "Account 
of Fifty-five Royal Processions and Entertainments in the City 
of London " (London, 1831, 8vo). 

260 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

Catherine of Aragon's state entry into London on 
November 12, 1501, is thus described in the quaint 
language of the time. Having listened to benedictory 
orations, delivered by two personages representing 
St. Catherine and St. Ursula, at London Bridge, 
" Dame Kateryn rode fforth to ledenhall corner, and 
there turned down to the Conduyt in Cornhill, where 
was ordeyned a costlew pagent w l a volvell, by the 
which the Xij signes moved about the zodiak, and 
the mone shewed her course and dirknesse," &c, 

The conduits were sometimes made to subserve 
the purposes of moral instruction. When James I. 
passed through the City on his accession the conduits 
were decked out with verses, such as these, which 
are selected from a scarce and curious black-letter 
duodecimo, printed in 1607; — 

Upon the conduit in Cheapside were these 
verses : — 

" Life is a dross, a sparkle, a span, 
A bubble : yet how proud is man ! " 

Upon the conduit in Grateous (Gracechurch) 
Street : — 

"All in this world's Exchange do meete, 
But when death's burse-bell rings, away ye fleete." 

Gifts or benefactions, such as that already 
mentioned of John Wells, who furnished a cistern 
for the Standard in West Cheap, and of William 
Eastfield, who made provision for the Paddington 
conduit, were not uncommon ; they sometimes 
distinguished a term of office, or were given in 
charity. Posthumous gifts were also occasionally 

261 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

made. Stow notices a bequest by one John Pope, 
citizen and barber, who by his will, dated May n, 
1437, gave for the reparation of the Great Conduit, 
and the other conduits in the City, his tenement 
"with the appurtenances which by right descended 
to him." Another benefactor, William Love, be- 
queathed the sum of 10s. "annual quitrent charged 
on tenements in Ismongerelane in the parish of St. 
Martin Pomer (Pomary) to the work of the Conduit 
of London ; the Will of the said William being 
enrolled in the Husting for Pleas of London held 
on Monday after the feast of the Purification (of 
the) B.M." (February 2nd), 2nd Edward III., 
1327-28. J 

The Tonne, or Tun, 2 upon Cornhill, Stow states, 
was built in the year 1282 by Henry Wales (Wallis), 
Mayor of London in that year, as a prison for night 
offenders. In 1401 it was "cisterned" on being turned 
into a conduit. Some years before this, namely, in 
1378, a meeting of the Common Council was held 
at Guildhall to consider (among other matters) the 
best means of carrying out the repair of the conduit 
in Chepe, and carrying it up to the cross-ways on 
the top of Cornhill, for which purpose the executors 
of Adam Fraunceys had promised to contribute 

1 Calendar of Wills, i., 330. 

2 Thornbury ("Old and New London," ii. 169) reproduces 
a view of Cornhill in 1630, published by Boydell, showing the 
first Royal Exchange and a cylindrical Gothic structure standing 
in the middle of the street, which is the Tun. It was so called, 
Stow says, because it was built somewhat in the fashion of a 
tun, or barrel, standing on one end. There is another print of 
the Tun in the Gardner Collection, which is reproduced in 
Besant's " Mediaeval London," 1906, p. 355. 

262 



Shallow Wells, City Conduits 

500 marks. This seems to refer to the fitting 
up of the Cornhill conduit, probably identical with 
the Tun. 

In one instance — in the year 1432 — a great con- 
ventual house — " Nostre Dame d'ordre de Charthous" 
— within the City walls, provided a water-supply of 
its own. Two years previously — in 1430 — John 
Ferriby and his wife Margery enfeoffed the Prior 
and Convent of the Carthusians of a certain well- 
spring in the meadow called Overmead, in the town of 
Islington (en la vill' de Iseldon), to make an aqueduct 
at the rent service of i2d., together with a certain 
piece of land, at a spot marked approximately in 
later times by a building known as the White 
Conduit House. 



263 



CHAPTER II 

CONDUITS WITHOUT THE CITY 

The White Conduit — Supplied water to the Carthusian Friars — 
Fleet Street — Its water-supply — Fleet Street Standard — 
Cistern made to receive its overflow — Thames water used 
by Londoners — Springs in Paddington granted by the 
Abbot of Westminster to the Mayor and citizens of 
London — Water from springs at Hackney — Banqueting 
House on the site of Stratford Place, with cisterns in the 
basement — Lamb's Conduit — References to the conduits in 
the Letter Books — Keepers or wardens to look after them 
— Measures taken to restrain keepers of brew-houses and 
others from making ale with the water from the conduits — 
Tynes and tankards used for conveying water — Grants of 
Quills — The London Waterbearers — Their petition — Water- 
bearers' Hall — List of conduits removed — The Standard in 
Cornhill a point of measurement for distances from the 
City — Explanation of a complete service on the Conduit 
System. 

THE stone conduit from which the house of 
entertainment — a kind of minor Vauxhall for 
the Londoners who went for cakes and cream to 
Islington and Hornsey — took its name appears, from 
all accounts, to have been an arched structure, built 
with stone, brick, and flint, and cased with white 
stone, from which it received its appellation of the 
White Conduit. A sculptured stone over the door 
bore the date 1641 and the initials and arms of 

264 



Conduits Without the City 

Thomas Sutton, who founded the Charterhouse as a 
school. Sutton was obviously only the restorer of 
this little edifice, for long antecedent to his time the 
water had flowed hence to supply the wants of the 
Carthusian Friars. The building remained much in 
the state represented in a print in the Gentleman s 
Magazine of May, 1801, till about 181 2, when it was 
suffered to fall into decay, being gradually stripped 
of its outer casing, and at last it was entirely 
destroyed in 1831, to make way for the completion 
of some new buildings in Barnsbury Road, as a con- 
tinuation of Penton Street, formed some five years 
previously. The materials were used to repair part 
of the New Road. Cromwell, who also incorporates 
some of Malcolm's information, says (" History of 
Clerkenwell," p. 438), " The original spring issued from 
the ground at the distance of 43 perches north frorn 
the Conduit House, and was conducted into the latter 
by a brick channel, which was discovered a few years 
since by the builders of the houses since erected all 
around. In the conduit was a massy cistern with an 
aperture at the bottom for carrying away the waste 
water." His remarks are referable to the year 1827. 

The place where the conduit stood when Mr. T. E. 
Tomlins wrote his "Perambulation of Islington," about 
1858, was the back of a house occupied as a pawn- 
broker's shop — No. 10, Penton Street — at the corner 
of Edward Street. A view of the conduit when in 
the last stage of neglect (1827), by Mr. J. Fussell, is 
given in Hone's "Every-Day Book" (vol. ii. p. 1202). 

The water-supply of Fleet Street was anciently 
drawn, in part at least, from the "holy" wells of St. 
Clement and St. Bridget. Early notice of the regular 

265 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

supply of this street occurs in the City records 1 in 1388, 
when the inhabitants complained that the pipes burst 
and the water found its way into their houses, flooding 
their cellars and damaging their goods and wares. 
They urged that the pipes should be covered, and 
licence was accordingly granted by the Mayor and 
Aldermen to build a pent-house (pinaculum) at a 
given point of the aqueduct, "opposite to the house 
and tavern of John Walworthe, vintner, which are 
situate near to the hostel of the Bishop of Salisbury." 2 
Walworthe, John Rote (the Alderman of the Ward), 
and some twenty others were the applicants. 

The construction of the main from Paddington3 
having been abandoned for six years or more, the 
executors of Sir William Eastfield obtained licence 
of the Mayor and Commonalty in the year 1453, and 
with the effects of Sir William took the work in hand 
and completed it by 1471, together with the conduit 
by Aldermanbury Church, not far distant from his 
dwelling-house. With the same powers his executors 
also conveyed water to Cripplegate. 

The Fleet Street Standard stood a little to the west 
of Shoe Lane. Over the cistern Stow describes a 
stone tower, ornamented with " images of St. Chris- 
topher on the top and angels round about, with sweet- 
sounding bells, which hourly with hammers chymed 
such an hymn as was appointed." To receive the 

1 Letter Book H, p. 326. 

2 The Inn or London House of the Bishops of Salisbury 
stood on the site of Salisbury Court, on the south side of Fleet 
Street. 

3 Portions of the pipes were dug up in Fleet Street in 1743, 
and by St. Clement's Church in 1765. 

266 



Conduits Without the City 

overflow of the Standard a cistern was made at Fleet 
Bridge in 1478 "by the men of Fleet Streete," but 
Stow adds : " The watercourse is decayed and not 
restored." I The Standard was rebuilt, with a larger 
cistern, at the City's expense in the year 1582 ; it was 
destroyed in the Great Fire. 

It must not be supposed that Londoners had only 
the conduits on which to depend ; the river Thames 
was also freely drawn upon : the water-carriers, besides 
filling their tankards from the conduits, used the river- 
water to supply the houses of citizens for a small re- 
muneration. The carts also conveyed water in still 
greater quantities from the Thames. In the City 
ordinances made after the year 1275, but probably 
before the Great Conduit in Cheapside was opened, 2 
there is a regulation that for carts taking water from 
Dowgate or Castle Baynard to Cheap the charge 
should be three halfpence ; if they went beyond 
Cheap two pence ; if they stopped short of Cheap 
one penny farthing (Liber Albus, i. p. 730). In 
one year — 1325-26 — it is recorded in the Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicles of London (p. 261) that, "for want 

1 For surreptitiously tapping the conduit where it passed 
his door, and conveying the water into a private well, thereby 
causing a lack of water to his fellow-citizens, civic records relate 
that William Campion, of Fleet Street, was in 1478 sentenced 
to imprisonment, and was further punished in the following 
mediaeval fashion : Being set upon a horse, a vessel like unto a 
conduit was placed upon his head and kept filled with water, 
which ran down his person from small holes made for the 
purpose, keeping him continually drenched. In this condition 
he was taken round to the City conduits, where his offence was 
proclaimed, as a warning to other citizens. 

2 The conduit is mentioned in Letter Book B, 6th Edward I. 
(1277-78). 

267 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

of fresh water, the tide from the sea prevailed to such 
a degree that the water of the Thames was salt ; so 
much so that many folk complained of the ale being 
salt." Unless care were taken to take water from 
the river at certain periods of the ebb tide, and some 
distance from the bank, a similar complaint might 
have been justly made at any time. But the ever- 
recurring trouble which had to be contended with 
was the pollution of the Thames from accumulations 
of filth on the river-bank. This was the subject in 
1357 of a peremptory letter to the Mayor and Sheriffs 
from the King (Edward III.). Various civic ordi- 
nances and enactments in Parliament tend to destroy 
one's faith in the general purity of the river and its 
fitness for drinking. There were penalties for casting 
refuse from stables and slaughter-houses into it, the 
Thames water at Dowgate Dock becoming - at this 
time so corrupted by filth thrown there that the 
water-carriers accustomed to fill their tankards from 
this dock "were no longer able to serve the Com- 
monalty, to their great loss." Orders were therefore 
given for cleansing the dock (Letter Book F, 19th 
Edward III., 1345). 

In the fifteenth century there is further evidence 
that the water-supply of London was a subject of 
concern to the Corporation. On March 11, 1439, 
Richard, Abbot of Westminster, granted to Robert 
Large, 1 the Mayor, and citizens of London, and their 
successors, one head of water, together with certain 
springs to the north and west of the same head, 
within a length of 26 perches, and a breadth of 

1 A mercer, who will always be remembered as the master 
to whom Caxton served his apprenticeship. 

268 



Conduits Without the City 

i perch, in a certain close called Oxlese, within the 
manor of Paddington, in consideration of the City 
paying annually to the said Abbot and his successors, 
at the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula, two peppercorns. 
This grant was confirmed by Henry VI. in the year 
1442, and likewise a writ of Privy Seal issued allowing 
the citizens power to impress the necessary labour and 
to purchase 200 fodders (a fodder of lead being about 
a ton) of lead for the intended pipes or conduits. In 
the next century additional conduits were constructed 
by the Corporation in different parts of London : the 
conduit at Bishopsgate, built about the year 15 13 ; 
that at London Wall, against Coleman Street, about 
1528. Without Aldgate, long known for its pure 
water, a conduit was built in 1535 by means of a 
grant of money from the Common Council : the 
source consisted of two heads, situated in fields near 
Dalston, whence it was conveyed by pipes laid in the 
ground at depths varying from 8 to 18 feet, till they 
terminated at the Conduit. 

In 1543 the municipal authorities obtained statutory 
powers to repair damaged Conduits and erect new 
ones, as well as to bring water to the City from 
Hampstead (Stat. 35 Henry VIII. c. 10). This was 
London's first Water Act. 1 It was entitled an Act 
" Concernynge the repayringe, making and amend- 
ynge of the Condytes in London." But the water 
yielded from the above and other sources, old and 
new, proved inadequate, for such was the insanitary 
condition of the City that the water problem was 
taken seriously in hand by the Common Council 

x The city of Gloucester obtained its Water Act two years 
earlier. 

269 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

towards the close of the year 1545, when Sir Martin 
Bowes entered upon his mayoralty. A tax of two- 
fifteenths was imposed upon the inhabitants of the 
City for conveying water from certain " lively 
sprynges" recently discovered at Hackney. In fact, 
the City authorities appear from that time to have 
taken more active interest in water-supply. Accord- 
ing to Stow, it was their custom to pay annual visits 
of inspection to the various Conduit-heads, and on an 
occasion, cited by him, in 1562, the Mayor (Harpur), 
Aldermen, and many " worshipful persons " of the 
twelve livery Companies, rode on horseback to the 
Conduit-head at Marybone with great formality and 
parade, their wives making the journey in wagons. 
Here, after inspecting the reservoirs, they were en- 
tertained with good cheer by the City Chamberlain 
in a banqueting-house erected on the site of Stratford 
Place " for their convenience, after which they hunted 
a fox in the neighbouring woodlands. The old cis- 
terns, which were in the basement beneath the 
Banqueting House, being no longer wanted, were, in 
1737, arched over and abandoned. The house itself 
was pulled down and its site let on lease. 

Notwithstanding the official recognition shown 
by these formal visits, the efforts of private individuals 
in attempts to improve the City's water-supply were 
by no means discouraged. The scheme of William 
Lamb entitles him to particular notice. He is usually 
described as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to 

1 In August, 1875, while making repairs or alterations in the 
roadway of Oxford Street at this point the workmen came upon 
the reservoirs and arches under the Banqueting House, which 
had remained in a fair state of preservation, 

270 



Conduits Without the City 

Henry VIII.; he was also a freeman of the Cloth- 
workers' Company. Among many other benefactions 
he generously undertook the charge of bringing water 
collected from several springs in leaden pipes a 
distance of about 2,000 yards to Snow Hill, where, 
in 1577, he rebuilt a conduit, standing a little below 
the Church of St. Sepulchre — at Oldbourne Crosse 
(Stow) — which had long been in a ruinous state, and 
disused, at a cost of ,£1,500. This conduit was 
again rebuilt in 1667 from a design by Sir Christopher 
Wren, consisting of a stone building of four sides, 
with four columns, over which was a pediment, 
surmounted by a pyramid, on which stood a lamb — 
a rebus on the name of Lamb. 

The public-house known by the sign of the " Lamb" 
at the north-east end of Lamb's Conduit Street 
is distinguished by the appropriate effigy of a lamb 
cut in stone, which the writer of an article in the 
Illustrated London News of November 22, 185 1, 
concluded to be no other than the one which stood 
upon the conduit. The same writer discovered in 
the yard of the public-house a trap-door in the pave- 
ment, which on being lifted led by a short flight 
of steps into a brick vault, where was to be seen 
the wooden cover of the well and beneath it the well 
itself. The "New View of London" (1707), com- 
piled, it is believed, by Hatton, describes the fountain- 
head of Lamb's Conduit as being in the vacant 
ground a little to the east of Ormond Street. 

The conduit was taken down in 1746. A pump, 
which was reputed to be erected on the Conduit-head, 
probably in the year just mentioned, stood against 
the corner house of a small turning leading out of 

271 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Lamb's Conduit Street, "on the right-hand side 
as you go towards the Foundling, known as Long 
Yard." Carved on the gable of one of the houses 
was the inscription : " Lamb's Conduit, the property 
of the City of London. This pump is erected for the 
benefit of the public." l The date became obliterated. 
A charge was a'ways made for water supplied by 
conduits when used for trade purposes. In the 
" Letter Books " are many references to the conduits, 
and particularly to their management. It appears 
from these that Keepers or Wardens were appointed 
to look after them. Such officers were, after being 
duly elected, admitted and sworn in the presence 
of the Mayor of London and the Aldermen, to 
faithfully collect the money left to, or acquired by, 
the conduit, and to render true account thereof when 
called upon. The custodian had also to receive the 
money assessed upon traders, such as brewers, 
pastelars (cooks), and fishmongers ; to see that the 
water was not wasted, and to take no fees or 
gratuities, or sell water for private profit, on pain 
of losing his freedom. The guardianship thus 
created was evidently very necessary in the interests 
of the consumer. In the Liber Albus there are 
several entries between the years 1309 and 13 16 
and subsequently, showing that the City brewers 

1 Notes and Queries, April, 1857, 2nd Series. In October, 
1905, while cutting a cross-trench in connection with the work 
of the electrification of the tramway lines in Theobald's 
Road, the workmen came upon a length of about 12 feet of 
an old wooden water-conduit in excellent preservation. It 
was thought to be probably a part of Lamb's Conduit. The 
pipes had been made out of tree-trunks with a bore of about 
9 inches. (The Standard, October, 1905.) 

272 



Conduits Without the City 

took so much water from the Great Conduit that the 
supply of their fellow-citizens ran short. As a con- 
sequence of this a "plaint" was made in the nth 
year of Edward III. (1337) in the Hustings Court 
by certain persons living near the Conduit, that 
" men who keep brew-houses in the streets and lanes 
near the Conduit, send day after day and night after 
night, their brewers with their tynes, and make the 
ale which they sell with the water thereof." In the 
year 1345 the Mayor and Alderman agreed, the 
Commonalty assenting, that such brewers should in 
future no longer presume to brew or make malt with 
water from the conduit, on pain of losing the tankard 
or tyne with which he shall have carried water from 
the conduit, and 4od. the first time ; the tankard or 
tyne and half a mark the second time ; and the third 
time the tankard or tyne and 10s. 

The means of obtaining water from the conduits 
consisted either in employing water-carriers, called 
in those days "cobs," 1 to bring it, or in sending 
servants to fetch it ; the latter could, of course, only 
be done by the wealthier citizens. The tyne, or 
vessel for holding the water, was a wooden tub 
formed in the ordinary way with staves and hoops ; 
the tankard contained about three gallons and was 
shaped like a cone ; it had a small iron handle at the 
upper (narrow) end, and, being fitted with a bung or 
stopple, was easily carried on the shoulders. In a 

1 Oliver Cob, the water-bearer, is one of the characters in 
Ben Jonson's play, " Every Man in His Humour " (1598), and 
the sort of coarse repartee he indulged in may be taken as a 
fair sample of that used at the London conduits. The water- 
carriers resided chiefly in Cob's Court, Broadway, Blackfriars, 
and this is probably how they came to be called " cobs." 

273 S 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

rare print executed in the reign of James I. and 
preserved in the British Museum, reproduced by 
J. T. Smith in " Cries of London " (1839), the water- 
carrier is shown bearing the tankard upon his 
shoulder. He wears the dress of Henry VIII.'s 
time, and to keep him dry coarse aprons hang from 
his neck, one in front and one behind. In Tempest's 
11 Cryes of London" (171 1) is an engraving of a 
water-bearer, with the words " New River Water " 
inscribed beneath the picture. He carries two tubs 
or tynes suspended from a yoke on his shoulders. 
Besides being carried by hand, the water was also 
conveyed by barrow and by cart. As the supply 
of water grew scarce through the laying down of 
pipes or " quills " of water to private dwellings, there 
were frequent disputes among the cobs for precedence 
in filling their vessels, and the Mayor forbade them 
to take clubs and staves, with which they would 
sometimes belabour each other. A curious print — 
published about the time of Elizabeth — is a satire 
on this custom ; it is entitled " Tittle Tattle," and 
tells in homely couplets how — 

"At the conduit striving for their turn 
The quarrel it grows great, 
That up in arms they are at last, 
And one another beat." 

While the citizens generally obtained water from 
these public fountains, some noblemen and other 
persons having mansions in the City or near the 
course of the conduit from Tyburn obtained leave 
to lay a small pipe or " quill " (probably, as the name 
implies, not exceeding a goose-quill in diameter) 

274 



Conduits Without the City 

connecting the conduit with their mansions or 
grounds. An instance of this occurs in 1582, when 
the Marquis of Winchester applied to the Mayor for 
leave to substitute a brick vault for the passage of 
water in place of the old pipes, which had decayed. 
Other similar applications were made : in 1592 by 
Lord Cobham, for a quill of water from the conduit 
at Ludgate for use in " his house within the Black- 
friars"; in 1601 by Lady Essex and Lady Walsing- 
ham for "a continuance of the pipe of water formerly 
granted to the Lord Admiral for use in Essex 
house"; and in 161 3 by Lord Fenton for his house 
near Charing Cross. The last records of these appli- 
cations to tap the City Conduits are of 1662-64. 

As grants of " quills" conferred privileges which 
brought no revenue to the Corporation, while the 
common stock of water was diminished, popular 
murmurs against the practice arose, the cause being 
taken up by the Company of Water-Tankard- Bearers. 
Following the example of the other crafts that 
flourished in the Middle Ages, the water-carriers of 
London, a numerous body of men, formed themselves 
into a guild or fraternity. Their rules and ordinances 
are dated October 20, 1496, the 12th of Henry VII., 
and purport to have been framed by " the Wardens 
and the whole fellowship of the brotherhood # of St. 
Christopher of the Waterbearers, founded within 
the Augustin Friars." A curious petition, 1 bearing 
no date, but, judging from the writing and spelling, 
probably drawn up about the close of the sixteenth 
or the beginning of the seventeenth century, was 

1 Mr. Clifford gives it without abridgment, "A History of 
Private Bill Legislation," vol. ii M 1887, pp. 59-61. 

275 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

presented to the House of Commons from " the 
whole Company of the poore Water-Tankard- Bearers 
of the Cittie of London, and the suburbs thereof, they 
and their families being 4,000 in number," &c. Their 
Grievances are set forth at considerable length in 
the petition, which begins by referring to an Act 
of Parliament of 35th Henry VIII. (1543) concerning 
the making and repairing of the conduits of London, 
with a proviso that it should not be lawful for any 
person to undermine, minish, withdraw, or abate 
any spring from its "dew" course and conveyance 
to the conduits in London. Yet, the petition goes 
on to declare, that " notwithstanding the said Act, 
most of the water is taken, and kept from the said 
Conduits in London by many private branches and 
cockes, and laid into private dwellings, being suffered 
also to runne at waste, to the general grievance of 
citizens, and all others repairing to the same, having 
their meat dressed with other waters, neither so pure 
nor holsome as the Conduit water is." The City's 
Plumber, one Randoll, seems to have been a delin- 
quent, confessing to having laid fifteen branches or 
cocks into private houses, and drawn from the 
conduits. Various other cases of illegal abstraction 
of water are cited in the petition ; the supply of 
water to Cornhill, Aldermanbury, and Gracechurch 
Street Conduits being either wholly stopped or 
given to private houses by the way. The effect 
of these irregularities was to deprive the water- 
carriers of much of their legitimate employment, so 
that their complaints were well founded. 

The petition, in quaintly worded phrases, takes one, 
as it were, behind the scenes, showing, from the 

276 



Conduits Without the City 

workman's point of view at least, how the City was 
served by a body of men who followed a calling 
which, like others, was not without its grievances. 
It would be interesting to know what was the result 
of the petition, whether it effected its object, or, like 
others of its kind, was consigned to the limbo of 
unredressed wrongs. 

In a list dated February 8, 1582, of deeds, &c, 
belonging to the parish of St. Michael's, Cornhill, 
appear several notices of Waterbearers' Hall (now 
Numbers 143 and 144, Bishopsgate Street Without, 
between Lamb Alley and Angel Alley). Extracts 
from the Minute Book of the vestry of St. Michael's 
(1563 to 1697) show that the Brotherhood of Water- 
bearers existed at least seventy-two years after their 
rules were certified by the ecclesiastical authority — 
that is to say, until 1568, in which year a certain 
Robert Donkin, Citizen and Merchant Taylor of 
London, purchased his house of the Company of 
Waterbearers. The filing of their petition not long 
after James I. came to the throne proves that they 
were in existence for at least another half-century, 
but how much longer remains to be ascertained. 

With reference to the state of the conduits in 
general about this time, Richard Blome, writing 
circa 1673, says : "The greater part of them do still. 
continue where first erected, but some, by reason of 
the great quantity of ground they took up, standing in 
the midst of the City, were a great hindrance, not 
only to foot-passengers, but to porters, coaches, and 
cars ; and were therefore taken down and removed 
to places more convenient ; so that the water was 
the same. The Conduits taken away with their 

277 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

cisterns are : the Great Conduit at the east end of 
Cheapside ; the Conduit called the Tun in Cornhill ; 
the Standard in Cheapside ; the Little Conduit at 
the west end of Cheapside ; the Conduit in Fleet 
Street ; the Conduit in Grass-Church Street (built in 
accordance with the will of Thomas Hill, who was 
Mayor in 1484); the Conduit without Aldgate, and 
the Conduit at Dowgate." The conduit at the Stocks 
Market, after its re-erection, appears to have been 
celebrated principally as being near the equestrian 
statue of Charles II. ; set up in 1672 by Sir 
Robert Vyner, the convivial Mayor who pulled 
the King back to the table to "take t'other bottle." 
Market and statue were both removed for the present 
Mansion House in 1739. The Standard in Corn- 
hill, 1 built in 1581-82, existed only for a few years 
after the Great Fire. For some time previously it 
was in an imperfect state, being sometimes dry and 
at other times overflowing ; for which last condition 
it was frequently presented as a nuisance by the 
Inquest of Cornhill Ward, under the names of "the 
Carrefour " 2 (or Quarrefour), and the " Foure Spowts." 
It received the first of these names from its position 
at the intersection of Gracechurch Street, Cornhill, 

1 An engraving of this, dated 1814, is in Wilkinson's " Londina 
Illustrata." There was a Standard in Cornhill as early as the 
2nd Henry V. (1415). (" Chronicle of London," edited by Sir 
N. H. Nicholas, 1827, p. 99.) 

2 At Aubervilliers (Seine), where, at the meeting of four cross- 
roads, many crimes have been committed, the spot is popularly 
called the " Carrefour du Crime." " The Carfukes of Leaden- 
halle " is mentioned in a proclamation made at the Leaden 
Hall for men of the poultry trade, in the 49th Edward III. 
(1375) (Riley, " Memorials, p. 389). The Carfukes of the 
Leaden Hall was best known as the Standard in Cornhill. 

278 



Conduits Without the City 

Bishopsgate Street, and Leadenhall Street. The 
other name was given to it because of four spouts 
which were directed as many different ways, for the 
use of the inhabitants living near it, and also for 
cleansing the channels of the streets diverging from 
it, namely, north towards Bishopsgate, east towards 
Aldgate, south towards the bridge, and west towards 
the Stocks Market. On account of the inconvenience 
of its situation, this conduit was one of those which 
was not rebuilt, and the last notice of it is probably 
the following entry contained in an official manuscript 
record of the expenses of erecting public buildings 
in London after the Great Fire, preserved in the 
Guildhall Library: "1671, July 10, Paid Nicholas 
Duncome for taking down the Conduit in Cornhill, 
&c, ^15 10s." 

That the City conduits were not entirely destroyed 
by the Great Fire we have the assurance of a 
contemporary writer — Dr. Samuel Rolles — in his 
" Relation of the late Dreadful Fire of London in 
the year 1666" (Meditation XL., "Spoiling of the 
City Conduits," London, 1667), and he is borne 
out, as regards one of them, by Evelyn, who records 
in his Diary, September 7, 1666, only five days after 
the outbreak, when the ashes were so hot as to burn 
the soles of his shoes, that the Standard in Cornhill 
" continued with but little detriment." But there 
is no doubt that the conduits suffered severely, par- 
ticularly the leaden pipes and cisterns. 

The Standard was long in use as a point of 
measurement for distances from the City, and several 
suburban milestones are still inscribed with so many 
miles from the Standard in Cornhill — e.g., on the south 

279 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

side of Barnes Common, in the Upper Richmond 
Road, is one marked "IX. miles from the Standard 
in Cornhill." : 

After serving their purpose for more than five 
hundred years the conduits by about the middle oi 
the eighteenth century had ceased to be used in 
London. In a few provincial towns they are still 
in use ; at Wells, Somerset, the waterworks of Bishop 
Beckington continue to supply the city. The springs 
rise in the garden of the Bishop's palace, in which 
stands the little fifteenth-century structure, where 
the waters are gathered, and whence they are con 
veyed in leaden pipes to a conduit-house in the 
market-place. An arrangement of a similar kind, 
though more modern, exists at Cambridge, where 
the quaint Jacobean structure called Hobson's Con- 
duit now stands at the entrance to the town from 
the Trumpington road, having been removed from 
the market-place in 1 856.2 Another conduit-house 
is mentioned by Parker as having been " erected 
in Oxford by Otho Nicholson so late as the time of 
James I., and water to supply it was conveyed by 
pipes from Hincksey Hill, a distance of about two 
miles, where the small building for the conduit-head 
still remains (1859). The conduit itself was removed 
about the end of the eighteenth century from its 
original position at Carfax, where four streets meet, 

1 A correspondent writes to the City Press, October 23, 1909, 
that upon a stone let into the wall of an old house in Lewes 
(Sussex) the following inscription appears : " 50 miles from the 
Standard in Cornhill ; 49 to Westminster Bridge ; 8 miles to 
Brighthelmstone " (Brighton). 

2 Philip Norman, on "An Ancient Conduit-head in Queen 
Square, Bloomsbury," Archceologia, v. 56, Pt. 2. 

280 



Conduits Without the City 

and where it must have been a considerable obstruc- 
tion to the traffic." l 

For the sake of clearness it may be useful to explain 
that a complete service on the conduit or aqueduct 
system was carried out somewhat on this wise : The 
conduit-head was placed as near as possible to, if not 
actually over, the natural spring or springs forming the 
source of supply. Into this " Receipt-house," as it used 
to be called, the water was led, filling a cistern or tank 
in the building, and passing on into the pipes in its 
course to the distributing base, which might be from 
one to three or more miles distant. Here the water 
was stored in a receptacle of greater capacity, and 
drawn from cocks or taps, as it was required. No 
mechanical contrivance was used either to raise the 
water into the cistern or to accelerate its passage 
through the pipes. All depended upon the very slight 
downward gradient necessary to ensure a steady flow 
of water ; and indeed this fundamental principle of 
gravitation was the only known method of water 
conveyance in the Middle Ages. 

It would appear that there is no record existing of 
the quantity of water which the old London reservoirs 
were capable of holding. This is regrettable, as it 
would be of some interest to know, for instance, what 
was the storage capacity of the great Cheapside 
Conduit, to which such frequent allusion is made in 
civic records. Stow, who gives a long list of the City 
conduits, omits any mention of the point, either 
directly or indirectly, nor do any of the later historians 
touch upon it. 

1 " Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England," by 
T. Hudson Turner and J. H. Parker, vol. iii., 1859. 

281 



CHAPTER III 

CONDUITS WITHOUT THE CITY (continued)— 
LONDON BRIDGE WATERWORKS 

Bayswater or " Roundhead " Conduit — Its position and course 
indicated — Remarks by Matthews in " Hydraulia " — Mr. 
Morley Davies on the " Roundhead " — Paddington Conduit 
System transferred from the City to the Bishop of London 
and Trustees of Paddington Estate — Ancient conduit in 
Queen Square, Bloomsbury — Identification of the White 
Conduit — Conduit near Hyde Park Corner — Conduit-house 
in Greenwich Park — Underground passages in the Park ; 
their elaborate construction — Wooden water-pipes — Use of 
tree-trunks for water-pipes abroad — Morice and his London 
Bridge Waterworks — The engine described — Other schemes 
for supplying London with water. 

THE Bayswater or "Roundhead" Conduit, the 
earliest Conduit-head, may be taken as a type 
of its kind. It is mentioned by name as early as 1634, 
in a petition of the Corporation to the Privy Council. 1 
It is there called the "Roundhead near Tyburn," and in 
a reply from the Council 2 " the Round Head in Oxelees 
near Paddington." An essay in the Gentleman s 
Magazine for April, 1798, gives a minute description of 
it — as a building — but what the essayist says as to its 
situation — " in the fields, nearly equidistant from 

1 " Remembrancia " Index, p. 559, vii. m. 

2 Ibid., vi. 116. 

282 




ll (' 



9J i ffl, VHesa 



A. S. Foord fecit. 



^^- 



i 



BAYSWATER CONDUIT. 

From the engraving of 1798 in the Guildhall Library. 



To lace p. 282 



Conduits Without the City 

Paddington Church and the tea gardens, which were 
formerly the botanic gardens of Sir John Hill " — 
conveys no very clear idea on that point. Of the 
building and its surroundings several views are extant, 
drawn with more or less fidelity to the original, if the 
most careful drawing — that of 1798 1 — be accepted as a 
guide. Matthews has a lithograph plate of it in his 
" Hydraulia." Another view of it is preserved in the 
Crace Collection, two are in the Guildhall Library, and 
no less than four in the Gardner Collection. The 
dates of these extend between the years 1796 and 
1820, and they all represent a circular building with a 
conical roof surmounted by a ball. The walls are 
built of large blocks of stone, fastened together with 
iron cramps to the brickwork with which they were 
lined. In the roof the stones overlap like tiles, and 
there are four small gables with lancet lights ; there is 
one door under a pointed arch, and over this is a panel 
with the inscription, which appears in a print of 1796 
as Rep. Anno 1632. Another panel on the south 
side bears the City Arms, and the date 1782. Its 
height was about 20 feet. The water issued from the 
interior through a wooden pipe at the very moderate 
rate of 30 gallons an hour. Taking its course 
under Bayswater Bridge into Kensington Gardens, it 
supplied the Palace. Lysons, 2 who only refers briefly 
to this conduit, not being so much concerned with 
London as with its environs, says : " The water-wheel 
at Hyde-park wall, near Knightsbridge Chapel, 3 was 

1 This is an engraving in Lysons' " Environs of London," 1795, 
published August 10, 1798, by N. Smith (Guildhall Library). 

2 " Environs of London," 1795, iii. 331. 

3 Stood on the north side of the main road, a little to the 
eastward of Albert Gate. Built 1789. 

283 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

made for the conveyance of this water." He also 
mentions that the water from the same conduit, " being 
conveyed by brick drains, supplies the houses in and 
about Bond Street, which stand upon the City lands." 

In 1835 William Matthews l wrote with reference to 
this conduit : " Great as was the solicitude and 
interest formerly excited by the various conduits, at 
present scarcely any traces remain to indicate the 
precise places whence the water was derived that 
flowed into them. That at Paddington, however, 
which was the first constructed, still exists, though 
probably not in its original form, but at a recent period 
it afforded a plentiful supply to some houses in Oxford 
Street. The conduit-head, or spring, is situate in a 
garden about half a mile to the west of the Edgeware 
Road, and the same distance from Bayswater, within 
two or three hundred yards of the Grand Junction 
Water Company's reservoirs. It is covered by a 
circular building in good condition." 

There is an article in the Saturday Magazine for 
May 18, 1844, on the Old London Conduits, the 
information in which is acknowledged by the writer to 
be chiefly derived from Matthews' " Hydraulia." 
Speaking of the Roundhead Conduit, he says : "The 
sources of the various conduits of London, formerly 
kept with so much care, have for the most part entirely 
disappeared. That at Paddington, however, still 
exists, though probably not in its original form." The 
words of the last sentence are precisely those used by 
Matthews, so that Walford and others seem hardly 
justified in assuming therefrom that the Roundhead 
existed in 1844, nine years after Matthews wrote. 

1 " Hydraulia," p. 22. 
284 



Conduits Without the City 

But however this may be, it at all events survived far 
into the nineteenth century. 

The Builder for September 4, 1875, contains an 
interesting reminiscence of the building (reprinted 
from the Daily News) communicated by a Mr. 
George Musgrave, M.A., who writes : " I am old 
enough to remember the stone-built conduit-house, 
from which Conduit passage and Spring Street, 
Paddington, derive their designation. It stood in a 
meadow described in an old document in my possession 
as situate between Paddington Church (close to the 
Vestry Hall) and the north side of Kensington 
Gardens ; but it will be more correctly pointed out by 
my stating that it stood on a slanting grassy bank about 
100 feet I distant from No. 4, Craven Hill, at the back 
of the line of dwelling-houses bearing that name. . . . 
I drank of the little rivulet in 1804, and recollect per- 
fectly the haystack-shaped monument (sic) overshadow- 
ing the stone pipe from which it issued, the security of 
which was threatened by the roots of a very old pollard 
elm. When the Craven Hill Estate was parcelled out 
for building purposes this stone conduit-house was 
pulled down." 

The vexed question of the site is ably discussed in 
a paper entitled " London's First Conduit System," 
by Mr. A. Morley Davies, F.G.S. 2 In the section 
in which he deals with the evidence afforded by maps 
and plans, he points out that although it might be 
thought that with their aid there would be no 

1 Walford ("Old and New London," v. 183), quoting from 
the same, has it, " about a hundred yards." 

3 Transactions London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 
N.S., vol. 2, pp. 9-59 (1907). 

285 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

difficulty in fixing upon the precise site of the Round- 
head, yet this is far from being the case. The plan of 
1 746 * in the Crace Collection — to the large scale of 
about 43 inches to the mile — which is the most 
detailed of any of the plans relating to the con- 
duits, and the earliest which includes those of 
Paddington, " may," he says, " perhaps be accurate 
as regards the measurements from point to point 
along the line of pipes, but the field boundaries and 
roads crossed can only have been sketched in the 
roughest way." While the exact site is, Mr. Davies 
considers, still an unsettled question, "the most prob- 
able site of the Roundhead seems to be on the 
north-western side of the street now called Craven 
Road, but originally named Conduit Street, some- 
where near its intersection of Westbourne Terrace 
(built 1847-52), or possibly a little nearer to Pad- 
dington Station. This agrees with what may be an 
indication of the Roundhead on a map of 1824 (Crace 
Collection, xiv. 4). On no later map can I find any 
indication of it." 

The evidence that the Roundhead Conduit belonged 
to the Westminster system is contained, as pointed 
out by Colonel Prideaux, in an entry in the Patent 
Rolls, dated March 1, 1439, 18th Henry VI., in 
which the Abbot of Westminster granted a head of 
water, " in quodam clauso vocato Oxlese infra Terram 
et Procinctum Manerii nostri de Padyngton." 2 

1 It is entitled " A Plan of the Drains, Openings, Conduits, 
Pipes, &c., from the Spring Head at Paddington to the Receipt 
Conduit," and bears the note — " This Plan was copied from 
an original Plan drawn by John Rowley for Geo. Dance, 
December 18, 1746." 

2 The grant then confers the right " to erect all necessary 

286 



Conduits Without the City 

From the plan of 1746 it appears that the conduit 
was divided into two branches at the spot where is 
now Stanhope Place, Connaught Square. One of 
these branches was carried through Hyde Park, and 
a surviving witness of it still exists in the shape of 
the little square conduit-house standing just within 
the palings of the Park where the buildings of 
Knightsbridge begin. The main branch, as it may 
be termed, from the starting-point at the Roundhead 
Conduit, of "two lead pipes, three inches diameter," 
ran to Tyburn in a nearly straight line, through 
enclosed fields. The distance, according to the scale 
on the plan, is about 3,900 feet. At about 1,500 feet 
from the Roundhead a "long drain" (for so it is 
called) begins, and extends past Tyburn, obliquely 
crossing the main road — Oxford or Tyburn Road — 
close by the gallows (portrayed on the plan) under 
the north-east corner of " Hide Park," continuing its 
course along the south side of Oxford Road (now 
Oxford Street) to about the site of Park Street, 
where the drain ends at "Oliver Cromwell's Conduit." 
The pipes continue past " Ann Wood's Conduit," by 
the end of North Audley Street, to a point just east 
of a bridge, and then turn abruptly south-eastwards, 
when the plan ends. A little further east on the 
same plan is a large " Receipt l Conduit," opposite the 
end of Marylebone Lane. 

cisterns," &c, the inference being that the Roundhead was 
probably erected about this time, in the fifteenth century. 

1 The word " receipt," as a receptacle for water, was in use 
in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It 
occurs — spelt receyte — on a Plan of Charterhouse Waterworks, 
c. 15 12 (Archcvologia, lviii., 1902). Bacon uses the word in the 
same sense in his essay on Gardens (1625). 

287 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

The route from Paddington to Marylebone is thus 
clearly marked out on the 1746 plan, but as no map 
or plan is known on which the course of the conduit 
pipes between Marylebone and the City is shown, 
we have to fall back upon the well-known statement 
of Stow, who makes it quite clear that the direction 
taken by the watercourse from Paddington was by 
way of Charing Cross, the Strand, and Fleet Street, 
and not via Bloomsbury and Holborn : " The water 
course from Paddington to James Head hath 510 
rods ; from James Head on the hill to Mewsgate 
102 rods ; from the Mewsgate to the Crosse in 
Cheape 484 rods." l The position of James Head is 
worked out by Mr. Davies from measurements on 
the maps, and by other deductions, as about where 
the present St. James's Church stands. " James 
Head on the hill " seems to him to denote " a 
fountain-head or spring on the hill above St. James's 
Hospital (afterwards St. James's Palace), and the 
site indicated comes just where springs were likely to 
exist on the margin of the higher terrace of gravel." 
From James Head the pipes kept for some distance 
along the edge of the hill, and then turned at right 
angles down the slope to the Mews. The pipes of 
the Paddington Springs followed the course of the 
earlier pipes from Marylebone to the City, the latter 
passing through " Conduit Mead." 2 The route from 

1 Taking the rod at 19 feet, this is 3,065 yards 1 foot. Mr. 
Davies gives the distance from Charing Cross to the site of the 
Great Conduit in Cheapside as 556 perches (or 3,058 yards), 
which is a fairly close approximation to Stow's measurement. 

2 The name " Conduit Mead " occurs as far back as 1536. 
Among the lands exchanged between King Henry VIII. and the 
Abbot of Westminster is mentioned u a close called Brickclose 

288 



Conduits Without the City 

the Mews, near which was a separall r " made against 
the Chappell of Rounsevall 2 by Charing Crosse," 
was along the Strand and Fleet Street and up Lud- 
gate Hill. The pipes must, however, have been 
carried well to the north of the Strand and Fleet 
Street, or there would not have been a sufficient 
pressure to carry the water up the rise on the other 
side of the Fleet. 

There were then belonging to the Western System 
two distinct sources or spring-heads, namely : i. 
The original spring from which water was first 
brought to the City from without its walls in 1236, 
situated on what is now known as the Stratford Place 
site ; additional springs on or adjacent to the same 
site being impounded in 1355. 2. The Paddington 
Springs — first granted to the City in 1439, the works 
necessary to bring their water to the City not being 
completed until 1471. The pipes followed the course 
of the earlier pipes from Marylebone to the City. 

Both Strype and Maitland state that in 1703 the 
City leased the Marylebone conduits to Richard 

in the same parish [of St. Martin] between the Close belonging 
to Eybery [the region of Grosvenor Square] on the west and 
north and Condet Mede on the east" (State Papers, Henry 
VIII., vol. xi. (2), 84). The estate is still the freehold property 
of the City Corporation and forms the site of New Bond Street 
and Brook Street. 

1 Probably a settling-tank, in which the heavier suspended 
matter is collected for ultimate removal. 

2 St. Marie Rouncivall. Founded by William Marshall, Earl 
of Pembroke, in 1222, suppressed as an alien priory after 1432 
(Cals. Pat. Rolls, Henry VI., ii. 247), and revived for a fraternity 
in 1476 (" Mon. Angl.," vi. 677 ; Cals. Pat. Rolls, Edward IV., 
ii. 542). It was on the site of the present Northumberland 
Avenue. 

289 T 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

Soams (or Soame), a citizen and goldsmith, for a 
period of forty-three years at a rent of £700 per 
annum. 

In 181 2 the whole Paddington Conduit System 
passed out of the hands of the City, being conveyed 
for the sum of ,£2,500 to the Bishop of London and 
the Trustees who held the Paddington Estate on 
lease, and were at that time developing it for resi- 
dential purposes by virtue of a private Act of Parlia- 
ment (52 Geo. III. cap. cxciii.). 

An interesting monograph by Mr. Philip Norman, 
published in Archceologia in 1899, describes in 
detail an ancient conduit-head existing in Queen 
Square, Bloomsbury, which, from the evidence of 
documents, shows it to have been one of the two 
sources whence the Franciscan monastery of the 
Grey Friars (or Friars Minor) drew their supplies of 
pure water. The register of this great religious 
establishment is preserved among the Cottonian MSS. 
in the British Museum, and there is in it a detailed 
account of its system of water-supply. Guided by 
this topographical description of the conduit, Mr. 
Norman was enabled to trace the course of the water- 
pipes ; this, he says, was " under Newgate, close to 
St. Sepulchre's churchyard, crossing the Fleet 
River or Hole-Bourne at Holebourne Bridge ; up 
Leather Lane, then a mere track, and thence to the 
north-west into the open country, till on the land of 
Thomas de Basynges the nearer conduit-head was 
reached, whence was drawn the chief water-supply, 
and finally the little stone house beyond, which en- 
closes the more distant head." In the year 1893 
Mr. Norman, in company with three other gentlemen, 

290 



Conduits Without the City- 
two of whom were architects, examined a remarkable 
tank or well-head in a garden at the back of a house, 
No. 20, Queen Square, Bloomsbury, which stands 
immediately north of a passage now called Queen 
Square Place, but formerly Brunswick Court, so 
marked on Rocque's map of 1746. The house is 
rather more than half a mile to the north-west of 
Leather Lane, Holborn. The masonry forming the 
structure of the well-head was pronounced by Mr. 
Norman's companions to be at least as old as the 
fourteenth, and very probably of the thirteenth, 
century. The descent to the tank — in plan a 
square of from 11 to 12 feet — is made by modern 
steps down to the level of the first arch forming 
the entrance to the mediaeval structure ; thence a 
straight flight of steps spanned by other arches leads 
to the tank below. 

The smaller well or tank (for there were two) may 
have indicated the site of a spring which still supplies 
the conduit-head. The whole structure is shown on a 
plan which accompanies the paper. An examination 
which Mr. Norman made of the records at Christ's 
Hospital cleared up all doubtful points as to the 
identity of the conduit traced by him with that 
described in the register of the monastery, the passage 
from which containing the topographical account of 
the water system he retranslated. From evidence 
subsequently accumulated Mr. Norman was able to 
prove beyond a doubt that this structure is in fact the 
remoter conduit-head specified in the above account. 
The reports of the committee meetings of the 
Hospital, Mr. Norman observes, not only showed 
conclusively that the structure in Queen Square had 

291 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

formed part of the Grey Friars water system, but also 
threw a useful light on the later history of the old 
London conduits. The first Minute bearing on this 
subject, besides mentioning the conduit-head then in 
use and therein called the "Chimney Conduit," also 
refers to a " White Conduit " not far off. The date of 
the entry is 1661, when Christ's Hospital must already 
have been getting part of its supply from the New 
River, for at Michaelmas, 1665, a lease of the " river 
water " expired, and shortly afterwards the Governors 
resolved to renew it. In May, 1720, a letter is 
read at a committee meeting from " Nathaniel 
Curzon, Esquire (ancestor of Lord Scarsdale), about 
the Chimney Conduit, alias Devil's Conduit, in Red 
Lion Fields belonging to the Hospitall." He desires 
leave to take down the chimney, and instead thereof 
to place an image on a pedestal of stone with an air- 
hole at the top. This was agreed to. The site of 
the Devil's Conduit exactly corresponds with that 
of the well at back of No. 20, Queen Square, and 
if this supplied the Hospital it supplied the Monastery 
also. At what time the Chimney or Devil's Conduit 
fell into disuse does not appear from the Minutes. 
The " White Conduit," which Mr. Norman identifies 
with the "nearest head," as it is called in the monastic 
register, seems to have lingered on till November 9, 
1739, when, according to Minutes, it seems to have 
been last viewed by the Hospital authorities. 

A seventeenth - century conduit, a square brick 
building, originally faced with cement, of which but 
little now remains, and having a stone roof, is still 
standing just within the Park railings, a short distance 
west of Hyde Park Corner, near where the houses 

292 




f: 






c* : 



^v. 



-■■ ■ < f - 




CONDUIT HOUSE IN HYDE PARK. 
From an original drawing by the author. 



To face p. 292. 



Conduits Without the City 

begin. It is described as the " Receiving Conduit 
called the Standard" on a plan in the King's Collection 
at the British Museum, called "A Survey of the Con- 
duits, &c, to Whitehall, St. James's, &c, in 17 18," and 
various springs or " heads " in Hyde Park are shown 
to be connected with it. 1 There are no windows as 
in the Bayswater conduit : in the interior are four 
recessed round-headed arches, with chamfered edges. 
The building is 11 feet square, the height 22 feet, and 
the cubical contents of the iron tank 144 feet, equal to 
about 900 gallons. The entrance is by a door two 
steps below the ground-level ; a stone tablet above it 
is inscribed with the initials "G.R." and the date 
" 1820," when doubtless the building underwent some 
repairs. It has been long disused, and the tank had 
no water in it when the writer saw it in October, 1908. 
A much larger Conduit House is that in Greenwich 
Park, called the Standard, and as Greenwich is well 
within the scope of this book a short account may be 
useful, if only for the purpose of comparison. Its 
position is on the side of the Park opposite Croom's 
Hill, about 320 yards from St. Mary's Gate entrance. 
It is probably a late eighteenth-century building — of 
red brick and red-tiled roof — and the reservoir 
supplied Greenwich Hospital. Its use was discon- 
tinued early in 1903. The cubical contents of the 
tank is 1,51 1\ feet, equal to 9,426 gallons. 2 There 

1 The reservoirs in Hyde Park and the Green Park were 
supplied by pipes from the Chelsea Waterworks. There 
was a conduit on the north side of the Serpentine River, 
of which there is a drawing in the Crace Collection, dated 
1796. (Cat., p. 241, No. 26). 

2 From information privately communicated to the writer by 
Mr. A. Souza, Park Superintendent of Greenwich Park (1908). 

293 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

was formerly another Conduit - house in the Park, 
which is figured by Walford (" Old and New London," 
new edition, vol. vi. p. 168) as it appeared in 1835 ; this 
one was abolished many years ago. Two " Park 
Conduits," probably identical with the above, are 
mentioned in Hasted's "History of Kent" * as being 
connected with others outside the Park. In a plan 
facing page 42 in that work, entitled " A Survey of 
the King's Lordship or Manor of East Greenwich," 
a.d. 1695, 7 tn William III., five conduits are marked 
in different parts of the Park. A road running 
parallel with Croom's Hill is called in the plan 
"Conduit Walk"; here are two of the conduits, 2 
the remaining three are on the east side of the 
Observatory. 

Besides the conduits, there are several underground 
passages in the Park, running in different directions, 
many of them intended for the conveyance of water ; 
one leads from beside the Standard Reservoir to near 
the drinking-fountain at the top of Hyde Vale ; 
another runs from the hollow ground by Queen 
Elizabeth's Oak towards Vanbrugh Castle ; while a 
third passes beneath One Tree Hill, a branch from 
which goes in the direction of Maze Hill House. 

1 Edited by H. H. Drake — continued by Streatfield and 
Larking, "The Hundred of Blackheath," 1886. 

2 In a book entitled "An Account of the Legacies, Gifts, 
Rents, &c, appertaining to the Church and Poor of the parish 
of East Greenwich," by John Kimbell, 1816, the two conduits 
on the west side of the Park, both of which conveyed water to 
the Old Palace, are named respectively "The Standard 
Conduit " and " The Standard " ; the position of the latter 
on the plan seems to coincide very nearly with that of the 
Standard Reservoir still existing. 

294 



Conduits Without the City 

Some of these passages must be of ancient date, for 
"on 3rd February, 1434, King Henry VI. granted 
to his uncle Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, and 
Eleanor, his wife, permission to construct a subter- 
ranean aqueduct between the house he was building 
(now the site of the Royal Observatory) and a certain 
fount in Greenwich called Stockwell (or ' Common 
Well ' as it was termed in early parish deeds) outside 
the King's highway, which led between the Duke's 
garden and the Park, and confirmed the same to the 
Duke and his heirs for ever." 

Mr. A. D. Webster, a former Superintendent of 
Greenwich Park, in a book on the subject published 
by him in 1902, speaks of the elaborate construction 
of these remarkable passages ; that which originates 
near the Standard Reservoir, in which two persons can 
walk side by side without stooping, is 6 feet high 
and 4 feet wide, is beautifully built of brick, the floor 
also being paved, while it is ventilated by three shafts, 
each 6 feet in diameter, which pass to the ground- 
level above, a distance of between 30 and 40 feet. 
There is an entrance to this passage on the piece of 
waste ground between the Ursuline Convent and 
Hyde Vale, down a flight of wide brick-built steps 
and well-formed arch-work, with a wooden door, 
6 feet high at entrance. 

Sir Christopher Wren, about 1700, repaired the 
underground passages or conduits, and added water- 
pipes to two at least. Several of the conduits were 
abandoned in 1732, and the sale of water to the public 
then ceased. 

The method of conveying water in wooden pipes 
was brought into use after the New River works were 

295 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

opened, and it seems to have lasted till about the 
middle of the eighteenth century. In populous 
centres wood was, however, not the only material 
used for conduit pipes ; stone and brick were some- 
times employed. A correspondent in the Times of 
the 25th of April, 1896, noticed that in excavating 
the road in Bond Street for some purpose, the 
labourers had turned up some Bath-stone pipes, drilled 
out of the solid stone. For special purposes the 
Romans introduced cast-lead pipes ; fragments of 
these have been found in London, and some may be 
seen in the Guildhall Museum, where they are referred 
to the Romano- British period. Others, which belong- 
to the seventeenth century, are of red brick, cylindrical 
in form, and with a projecting ridge at the mouth ; it 
is suggested that these objects may have been spouts 
to conduits. Within the nineteenth century cast iron 
became general in the case of large towns. In 
London the first iron main was laid by the Chelsea 
Water Company in 1746. It was a 12-inch main, and 
cost ,£2,740. 

In a volume of pamphlets in the Guildhall Library, 
there is a description by Mr. F. W. Reader 1 of two 
drawings of the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell with 
the lines of wooden water-mains exposed to view. 
Both are taken from about the same spot, which is on 
the course of the Fleet River, at this time — circa 1800 
— an open stream as far as Holborn. The locality is 
that traversed by the King's Cross Road, formerly the 
Bagnigge Wells Road. One view shows the mains, 
four rows lying side by side, crossing the Fleet over 

1 "Wooden Water-pipes at Clerkenwell," F. W. Reader, 1904. 
(Reprinted from the Essex Naturalist, vol. xiii. pp. 272-274.) 

296 



Conduits Without the City 

an arch in the Spa Fields, and stretching to the New 
River Head by Sadler's Wells. A street of houses 
seen in the distance is Exmouth Street, then occupied 
by well-to-do people. The dome of Spa Fields 
Chapel, once famous in connection with the Countess 
of Huntingdon, is seen over the tops of the houses. 
The Bagnigge Wells Road is seen crossing the 
picture from left to right in the middle-distance, 
marked by a line of fence. The second view is from 
nearly the same point, about where the present 
Calthorpe Street is, not far from Rowton Mansions, 
the spectator looking towards King's Cross. The 
trees of Bagnigge Wells, at this period a flourishing 
pleasure-garden, and through which wandered the 
stream of the Fleet, are on the left of the picture. In 
the foreground the water is seen spurting from 
defective joints in some of the pipes. 

These drawings are said to have been made for 
Sir John Soane, not on account of their topographical 
interest, but for the purpose of showing the defective 
system of the New River mains by the employment 
of wooden pipes. 1 

Matthews (" Hydraulia," 1835, p. 75) descants on 
the advantage of leaving the pipes exposed as shown 
in the drawings, and he comes to the conclusion that 
upon the whole that method was more economical 
than covering them up, as this involved at times a 
great expenditure of time and labour in having to 
excavate them in order to find a leakage. Instances 

1 Wooden pipes, commonly of 7 inches diameter, cost in 
1 82 1 about 8s. a yard. The life of a wooden pipe has been 
variously estimated at from two to fifteen years, dependant on 
the soil in which it was laid. 

297 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

occurred of 200 or 300 yards of a street being taken 
up and several days elapsing before the workmen 
could discover a defect. 

Interest in the old conduits is revived from time 
to time by the unearthing of these wooden water- 
pipes, of which 400 miles are said to have been laid 
in London ; and as it was not worth the expense to 
take them up when they came to be replaced by 
metal pipes, there must be many scores of miles of 
them still underground. The pipes were equally 
common in the East as well as in the West End of 
London ; some were found while excavations were 
being carried on in connection with the Whitechapel 
to Bow Railway extension, opened for traffic in 1902 ; 
several hollowed tree-trunks were turned up which 
were precisely similar in character to those which 
have at various times been brought to light in Bond 
Street and its neighbourhood. 

In the Guildhall Museum there is a specimen of 
a wooden water-pipe, 5I feet in length. The thick 
end of the tree-trunk has been hollowed out to 
9 inches diameter to receive another pipe ; the thin 
end, with a bore of 6 inches, is tapered for insertion 
into the next length of pipe. In the same Museum 
is the front of a City conduit, from the corner of 
South Moulton Street, Oxford Street. The stone 
face measures 52x42^x15^ inches; the centre has 
an orifice in which was fixed the spout, or tap, and the 
City Arms are carved upon it, with the date 1627 
above them. Other examples of the old wooden 
water-pipes are to be seen in the Museum of the 
Royal Botanic Society, Regent's Park. Every few 
years one of the walled-up cisterns is discovered 

298 



Conduits Without the City 

under the foundations of old houses. A stone used 
to mark the site of one near the point at which 
Marylebone Lane crosses Wigmore Street; another 
was found at the top of North Audley Street in 1875, 
and the cisterns under the Banqueting House, which 
once stood on part of the site of Stratford Place, are 
said yet to exist in dark oblivion. 

The use of tree-trunks for water-pipes is still 
common in the wooded mountain districts of Europe ; 
and in the Western States of America bordering on 
the Pacific there are miles of pipes made for carrying 
water to various towns, and also for irrigation and 
sewer purposes. They vary in diameter from 8 inches 
to as much as 10 feet, and are made from the famous 
Californian redwood-tree. 

Notwithstanding the numbers of conduits erected 
at different times in various parts of London, as well 
as the other modes adopted for supplying water to 
its inhabitants, the quantity proved inadequate to the 
demands of a constantly increasing population. In 
this exigency the invention of Peter Morice, 1 a 
Dutchman or Fleming, but a free-denizen of London, 
in the service of Sir Christopher Hatton, marked an 
important step in advance. Morice's was the first 
mechanical contrivance is this country for impelling 
water in an ascending direction, and thus supplying 
places much higher than the ordinary water-level. 
Stow calls it "a most artificial forcier" : it was, in fact, 
a plunger or force-pump. The earliest writer to 
mention Morice and his scheme is Abraham Fleming, 
one of the continuators of Holinshed's " Chronicles " 

1 The name appears also as Morryce, Moryce, Morris, and 
Moris. 

299 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

(circa 1587). On the condition of Morice paying 10s. 
annually, the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty 
granted him a lease, dated May 30, 1581, for a term 
of five hundred years, by which he was authorised to 
erect an engine within the first arch of London Bridge. 
The Thames water, which was conveyed hence in 
pipes of lead, was at the City's expense brought up to a 
Standard erected at the north-west corner of Leaden- 
hall, and supplied the eastern part of the City. Two 
years afterwards, his invention proving of the greatest 
benefit to the City, the Corporation granted him the 
use of a second arch for the same term. In the mean- 
time — in 1582 — Bernard Randolph, Common Serjeant 
of the City, agreed to advance money (Stow says the 
amount was ^700) as a charitable gift " towards 
bringing water out of the Thames, by an engine to 
be constructed by Peter Morice, from London Bridge 
to Old Fish Street, in like manner as he had already 
brought the water to Leadenhall," to supply the 
private houses of the citizens. This offer had been 
approved by the Court of Aldermen, and licensed by 
the Common Council, inasmuch as the work " would 
profit the whole City, and be no hindrance to the 
poor water-bearers, who would still have as much 
work as they were able to perform, so far as the water 
of the Conduits would satisfy." But before this work 
of private benevolence was contemplated the Cor- 
poration had granted the lease to Morice for his 
water-wheels at London Bridge. 

Some time in 1580 a kind of preliminary agreement 
for the above-mentioned lease was made by the 
Mayor and Commonalty with Morice, but for some 
reason they hesitated to complete it, although they 

300 



Conduits Without the City 

had paid ^50 out of ^100 stipulated, and had 
provided land for the erection of engines. By reason 
of his employment under Sir Christopher Hatton, 
Morice was, however, in a position to bring pressure 
to bear upon the Corporation through his patron, 
who moved the Lords of the Council to take action 
in the matter. This they did by addressing a letter l 
to the Mayor requesting "to be certified as to the 
grounds of the City authorities in refusing to com- 
plete the agreement " : a somewhat high-handed 
method of procedure, but which seems to have had 
the desired effect, though, according to Stow, it was 
not until 1582 that the new water service came into 
actual operation. 

For a minute account of these London Bridge 
Waterworks we are indebted to a Mr. Henry 
Beighton, F.R.S., an engineer, whose description and 
illustration, with references to the parts of the 
machine, as it then existed, appeared in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 
for 1 73 1. The following summary, extracted there- 
from, gives the distinguishing features of the 
machine : — 

The pumps, which were ram pumps, similar in 
principle to those used in the present day, were 
driven by means of water-wheels actuated by the tide, 
whether flowing up or down. The plant beneath the 
arch nearest the City consisted of a water-wheel, 
having an axle 19 feet long and 3 feet in diameter, 
carrying 26 floats, each 14 feet long and 18 inches 
deep, these floats being secured to four felloes carried 

1 " Remembrancia," p. 551. The letter is dated Nonsuch, 
July 5, 1580. 

301 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

on eight spokes secured to the axle. The water-wheel 
axle was journalled in bearings carried upon two 
levers, one at each end of the wheel, the said levers 
being fulcrumed at the ends of their shorter arms 
in the wooden framing ; the ends of the long arms 
of the levers were supported by means of chains which 
were capable of being raised and lowered manually by 
means of winch mechanism, the object of this arrange- 
ment being to admit of the raising and lowering of the 
water-wheel in the river. Secured to the ends of 
the axle of the water-wheel were gear wheels, inter- 
meshing with pinions secured upon 4-throw crank- 
shafts, one at each end of the wheel. Each of the four 
crank-pins was connected by means of a connecting- 
rod to the end of a beam or lever, pivoted at its 
centre in the framework of the device, so that oscilla- 
tion of these levers or beams took place upon rotation 
of the water-wheel. Pivoted to each end of levers 
or beams were connecting-rods, which directly 
operated the ram pumps fixed beneath each end of 
the beams, and as there were four beams at each end 
of the wheel, each operating two pumps, the single 
wheel drove sixteen pumps (or forcers, as they were 
called). 

In the third arch of the bridge were fixed three 
more water-wheels, the first of which worked twelve 
pumps, eight at one end and four at the other ; 
the second in the middle worked eight pumps, and 
the third sixteen ; making a grand total of fifty-two 
pumps. These, when working under the best con- 
ditions, were designed to pump 123,120 gallons per 
hour, to a height of 120 feet, though this figure 
assumed no losses which might be due to leakage 

303 



Conduits Without the City 

of the valve, pistons, &c. The pumps were con- 
nected to a common delivery pipe of 7-inch bore 
for the supply of the houses. Mr. Beighton con- 
sidered the apparatus well designed and effective in 
working, and far superior to a similar apparatus at 
Marly in France. 

Although no description of Morice's original plant, 
which was destroyed in the Great Fire, seems to have 
come down to us, it is probable that the one described 
by Beighton was made after the same model, with 
perhaps some improvements in the details. 

In the Act for rebuilding the City in 1667 it was 
provided that his grandson, Thomas Morris (sic), should 
have power to rebuild with timber his water-house 
adjoining London Bridge for supplying the City with 
water, "as it for almost this hundred years hath done 
(18 & 19 Charles II. c. 8, s. 39). The property in the 
Waterworks remained in the possession of Morice's 
descendants and heirs for many years until, finding 
the profits diminishing, Thomas and John Morris, 
surviving representatives of the original grantee, sold 
their rights in 1703 to Richard Soame (or Soams), 
citizen and goldsmith, and others, for ,£38,000. These 
persons procured from the Corporation the use of 
another (the fourth) arch of London Bridge ; paid 
£"300 fine to the City for the transfer of the lease, 
and turned the whole property into a company of 
three hundred shares at ^500 each for working and 
developing the Waterworks. The City conduits still 
remaining were about this time leased to the pro- 
prietors of the Waterworks for £joo a year. When 
the company was dissolved in 1822 the shares had 
been increased to 1,500. 

303 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

On the Surrey side of the Bridge, at Southwark, 
Thames water was chiefly used, which fell into a 
large pond in St. Mary Overies, driving a mill called 
St. Saviour's Mill. At a subsequent period, with the 
view of erecting additional water-wheels to increase 
the efficiency of their supply to the City, the 
proprietors of the London Bridge Works obtained 
from the Court of Common Council leases of the 
third and fifth arches ; that for the third arch in 1761, 
and for the fifth arch, on the Southwark side of the 
Bridge, called from that circumstance "The Borough 
Wheel," in 1767. There was a stipulation that if 
the licence should be found to be injurious to the 
navigation of the river, the City might revoke the 
grant. The supply of water from the London Bridge 
Works extended over a large portion of the Borough 
of Southwark. The drawbacks to the supply from 
these Works were the commonly turbid state of the 
water, 1 and nearly the whole of the pipes being of 
wood, they were unable to sustain the pressure 
necessary for raising the water into the higher stories 
of many houses. The wheels also were of wood till 
1817, when iron wheels were substituted, which 
proved more effective, but in seasons when the 
tides were low the machinery was inefficient, and 
a steam engine had to be used to pump water from 3 
point near the middle of the river. The Waterworks 

1 The principal method relied upon in the present day for the 
purification of water-supplies — namely, the slow passage of water 
through filter-beds — was introduced for the first time on a large 
scale in 1828, for a portion of the London water-supply, and 
has not even yet been very generally adopted by some of the 
principal civilised communities of the world (Sanitary 
Engineering, L. F. Vernon- Harcourt, 1907). 

304 



Conduits Without the City 

continued in this state until they were assigned to the 
New River Company by an Act passed July 26, 
1822, the third year of George IV., when ,£15,000 
was paid for the unexpired period of the grant. 
With the building of the new bridge — 1825-31 — 
their final demolition was inevitable, those who had 
obtained their supply from them getting it from the 
New River and East London Works. 

Such is the history in brief of the first private 
undertaking on record which supplied water for 
private gain. But besides the London Bridge Works 
there were other projects brought forward, though 
few were carried to a successful issue. One of these 
is noticed by Stow (edition 1633), which was pro- 
pounded by one Russel "about the year 1580 odd," 
to bring water from Isle worth, viz., the river of 
Uxbridge {i.e., the Colne), to supply the north of 
London ; an ambitious scheme on paper, but which 
seems never to have got beyond that stage. In 
1592 a request had been made by Lord Cobham 
to the Court of Aldermen for a quill of water from 
the conduit at Ludgate for use in " his house within 
the Blackfriars " ; meanwhile the Lord Mayor wrote 
suggesting that for the present nothing could be 
done, but that the City were in treaty with one 
Frederico Genibella (or Genebelli), an Italian engineer 
skilled in waterworks, for the erection of a wind- 
mill at the fountain-head to increase the supply. If 
this plan succeeded, the request might be granted. 
Evidently it did not succeed, for in 1594 we find 
the request again urged, and supported by a letter 
from the Lord Burghley. 1 In 1593 Beavis Bulmar, 
1 " Remembrancia," p. 554. 

305 U 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

another foreigner, obtained a concession to set up 
an engine at Broken Wharf, a short distance from 
Blackfriars Bridge. The works were discontinued 
on account of the expense being greater in pro- 
portion to the supply to be charged for than that 
of other works. About half a century after this a 
Sir Edward Ford (in 1641) published "a designe 
for bringing a navigable river from Rickmansworth, 
Hertfordshire, to St. Gyles in the Fields." In this 
tract are set forth the advantages of the proposed 
river over the existing New River. 



306 



CHAPTER IV 

THE NEW RIVER— ARTESIAN WELLS 

Hugh Myddelton and the New River — Appeals against its con- 
struction by landowners and others — Myddelton receives 
financial assistance from the King — And a loan from the 
Corporation of London — Opening ceremony on Michaelmas 
Day, 1613, described by Stow — Monopoly established to 
oblige consumers to use the New River Company's water — 
Great value of King's and Adventurers' shares — Transfer- 
ence of the New River Company's business to the 
Metropolitan Water Board — Artesian wells. 

WHILE these and other schemes were being 
formed and promoted with varying success, 
and generally with the primary object of meeting 
local needs, an undertaking, far wider in its scope, 
and which was destined to outlive all others, came 
into being. This was the New River, the making of 
which, for public usefulness, may be classed among 
the most notable achievements of that age. It was 
carried through, in the face of much antagonism, by 
the enterprise and public spirit of a goldsmith of 
London — but of Welsh extraction — Hugh Myddel- 
ton. 1 

1 The name is spelt in different documents Middleton, 
Middelton, Mydelton, but he himself usually signed his name 
Myddelton. 

307 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

London had far outgrown its existing means of 
water-supply, but although complaints had been re- 
peatedly made of deficiency, no definite steps were 
taken in the way of remedy until an Act of Parlia- 
ment was obtained in the year 1606 (3 Jac. c. 18) 
authorising the Corporation to bring "a fresh stream 
of running water to the north parts of London 
from the springs of Chadwell and Amwell, 1 and other 
springs in the County of Hertford, not far distant 
from the same." This water was intended to be 
brought within the City by a trench not broader than 
10 feet throughout its entire length. But even with 
these powers nothing was done, except that upon 
"advised consideration" it was thought more con- 
venient that the water should be conveyed through 
a trunk or vault of brick or stone than in an 
open trench. 

There was a good deal of opposition to the Bill 
of 1606. A Captain Edmund Colthurst, who appears 
to have been employed by the Corporation to make 
plans for a supply of water from the Hertfordshire 
springs, claimed compensation for having acquired 
prior rights in this project. In March, 1608, Colthurst 
offered to carry out the works, but the Court of 
Aldermen were of opinion that he had not the 
necessary means, and therefore refused his application. 
Some recompense was probably made him. 

No long time passed before the Corporation, un- 
willing or lacking the courage to embark upon an 

1 They were fine chalk-water springs in the valley of the Lea, 
issuing from the foot of the chalk hills. Chadwell was the 
upper and larger of the two, Amwell lying to the south 
of Ware. 

303 



The New River 

engineering work of unknown difficulty and expense, 
abandoned the powers confided to them, and thus 
a second private undertaking for the supply of 
London with water became firmly established. By 
deeds dated in 1609 and 161 1 they transferred these 
powers to Hugh Myddelton, who, as member of 
Parliament, had sat on Committees for the considera- 
tion of the water-supply of North London, which 
had familiarised him with the subject, declared himself 
ready to take up the formidable task, and to complete 
the work within four years. His offer was accepted, 
and the first sod of the proposed New River was 
turned on the 21st of April, 1609, the operations com- 
mencing at Chadwell, near Ware, the principal spring. 
At the very outset Myddelton's troubles began. The 
opposition of the landowners through whose estates 
the stream had to pass was so determined, that in the 
year 16 10 a Bill was brought into the House of 
Commons to repeal the New River Acts of 3 and 4 
Jac. I. ; the petitioners objecting to the new works 
as destructive of their interests ; that " their meadows 
would be turned into bogs and quagmires," and arable 
land become " squalid " ; that their farms would be 
"mangled"; that the "cut "was no better than a 
ditch, dangerous alike to men and cattle. 1 But, de- 
spite all obstacles, Myddelton, with untiring energy, 
persevered in his undertaking, which progressed 

1 The King himself had an unpleasant experience of this. 
While riding along its banks with Prince Charles in the winter 
of 1621-22, when the river was slightly frozen over, his horse 
stumbled and threw him into the water : the King's body dis- 
appeared under the ice, nothing but his boots remaining 
visible. He was quickly dragged out and took no harm from 
the mishap. 

309 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

steadily ; the City, on his application, granting him an 
extension of five years, on the ground of difficulties 
interposed by occupiers and owners of the lands he 
required for the prosecution of his work. 

As might be expected, Myddelton's private purse 
was unequal to the constant drain upon it, and by 
the time the channel had been constructed as far 
as Enfield he found himself in straits for want of 
money. In this dilemma he applied to the King, 
with whom he had already had dealings as a jeweller. 
James, who had become interested in the works and 
their progress while at Theobalds, his hunting-lodge 
near Enfield, agreed to furnish one-half the outlay in 
bringing the New River to North London, and in 
distributing the water, on condition of receiving one 
moiety of the undertaking and of its annual profits. 
The Articles of Agreement between the King and 
Myddleton, which, however, precluded the former 
from taking any part in the management, were 
executed November 5, 161 1, and were confirmed 
by a Grant under the Great Seal on May 2nd of the 
year following. An abstract of the Grant from the 
original in the Public Record Office is given by 
Smiles in his "Lives of the Engineers" (pp. 1 16-17). 
In September, 16 14, the Corporation granted Myddel- 
ton a loan of .£3,000 for three years. With this money 
Myddleton was able to complete the works, and the 
water was let into the reservoir l at the New River 

1 The reservoirs of the New River Company at the New River 
Head, Clerkenwell, varied in size — one consisted of about 2 
acres, but the other three of about 1 acre each, the whole 
averaging in depth about 10 feet, and each one having a 
connection with the principal main. 

310 



The New River 

Head, in the parish of Clerkenwell, on Michaelmas 
Day, 1613, in the presence of Sir John Swinnerton, 
who was then Lord Mayor, and Thomas Myddelton, 
brother of Hugh, who was Lord Mayor-elect. Sir 
Hugh was knighted the same year, and made a 
baronet in 1622. There was also a great concourse 
of officials, workmen, and citizens. Stow, who records 
that he rode down divers times to see the works 
during their progress, gives a brief description of 
the opening ceremony, and a metrical speech com- 
posed for the occasion — in full. 

The shareholders were incorporated by letters 
patent on the 21st of June, 16 19, under the title of 
the "Governors and Company of the New River 
brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London." 
The government of the Corporation was vested in 
the twenty-nine Adventurers, who held amongst them 
the thirty-six shares originally belonging to Sir Hugh, 
who had by that time reduced his holding to only 
two shares. The New River, as originally con- 
structed, was a canal of 10 feet in width, and 
probably about 4 feet deep. It followed a very 
circuitous course, at various levels, of about 38! miles 
(but, as the crow flies, not more than 20 miles), 
with a slight fall, to Islington, where it discharged its 
water at the New River Head. The site of this had 
always been a pond, "an open idell poole," says 
Howes in his " Annales " (1631), "commonly called 
the ducking pond." Where the fall of the ground 
was found to be inconveniently steep a stop-gate 
(sluice) was introduced across the stream, penning 
from 3 to 4 feet perpendicularly, the water flow- 
ing over weirs down to the next level. In the 

3ii 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

opinion of Mr. Robert Mylne, one of the Company's 
engineers, the river, as originally constructed by 
Myddelton, obtained quite as large a supply of water 
from the grass-lands along the hillsides as from 
the Hertfordshire springs. The bridges over the 
river were about 160 in number, built mostly of 
timber, with a water-way under them, not exceeding 
10 feet in width. Where roads had to pass under 
the stream it was carried in wooden troughs lined 
with lead, supported on arches. One of these 
troughs, or aqueducts, at Bush Hill, near Edmonton, 
was about 660 feet long and 5 feet deep. A 
brick arch also formed part of this aqueduct, under 
which flowed a stream which had its source in Enfield 
Chase, the arch sustaining the trough and the road 
alongside of it. This was considered one of the 
most important structures of the original New River 
works, and was said to have cost ^500. (Salmon, 
"History of Hertfordshire," 1728, p. 20.) There were 
other brick tunnels at Stoke Newington and Islington. 
The water, when it reached the City, was at first 
carried in pipes of wood, 1 and it was estimated by 
the Company's engineer that the waste by leakage 
from them, and by bursting under pressure, was 
about one-fourth of the total quantity of water 
supplied. 2 

1 In the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1753 (vol. 23, 
p. 114), is a paper by Sir Christopher Wren, not published in 
his collected works, called "Thoughts concerning the Distribu- 
tion of the New River Water," in which he mentions the feeble 
flow in Soho and the higher parts of London, and suggests 
improvements ; but refers to it as " this noble aqueduct." 

2 Down to 1805 the New River Company could not serve 
water above the ground floor in any part of London. All their 

312 



The New River 

Long accustomed to receive water without pay- 
ment, the citizens were naturally in no haste to take 
the New River supply into their houses. But in 
those days of monopolies there was little scruple 
in enforcing compliance ; unjust and arbitrary 
influence from high quarters was unblushingly 
exercised to check free competition and to oblige 
consumers to take water from favoured sources. 
Such influence was plainly shown in more than one 
instance, as in a proposal for new works at London 
Bridge for the supply of Southwark — which was 
prohibited ; and also in respect of intended works at 
Dowgate, certain brewers and others having applied 
for a lease of a water-house there belonging to the 
City, and to be allowed to lay pipes to convey any 
surplus water into their brew-houses without Cripple- 
gate. Although the City Lands Committee recom- 
mended that a lease should be granted, yet the Lords 
of the Council " deemed it expedient to require that 
stay should be made of any intended waterworks at 
Dowgate, the more so since the brewers could so 
conveniently be supplied from the new stream, which 
was of great consequence to His Majesty's service, 
and deserved all due encouragement." To such 
lengths did these prohibitions go when any pro- 
ceedings were taken which might be supposed to 
prejudice the New River Company. 

The following transaction will convey an idea of 

mains being of wood, the water was shut off at night to prevent 
waste, which was enormous. If a fire broke out it was necessary 
to send to the New River Head with instructions to turn on the 
water, and a watchman was kept to look out. (Committee of 
1821 on Metropolitan Water Supply. Evidence of Mr. Myne, 
pp. 6, 8.) 

313 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

the mode of charging for a supply of water at an 
early period. In 1616 Hugh Myddelton granted a 
lease l for twenty-one years to a citizen and his wife of 
a " pipe or quill of half an inch bore, for the service 
of their yarde and kitchine," by means of " tooe of 
the smallest swan-necked cockes," in consideration 
of the yearly sum of 26s. 8d. (Nelson's " History of 
St. Mary, Islington," 181.) 

It was a long time before there were any profits 
accruing to the shareholders of the New River 
Company; no dividend was paid until 1633 — twenty 
years from the date of opening. One of the 
privileges granted by the Charter of Incorporation 
to the Company was that the Adventurers should hold 
their property from the Crown in free and common 
socage, the effect of which was to make each pro- 
prietor's share a freehold estate. As the undertaking 
in its early days yielded no return, Charles I. re- 
granted his thirty-six shares (half the capital) to Sir 
Hugh Myddelton, in consideration of an annual pay- 
ment of ^500. This sum is still paid into the 
Exchequer, and attaches to the King's shares as a 
"clog" or charge. Mention is made of the Grant, 
which is dated November 15, 1631, in the Calendar 
of State Papers, 1631-33. After 1640 the Company's 
prosperity steadily increased ; by the end of the 
seventeenth century the dividend paid was at the 
rate of about ^200 per share ; at the end of the 
eighteenth century above ^500, and by the middle 
of the nineteenth century about ^850. Both King's 
and Adventurers' shares have been subjected to much 

1 A copy of the lease is in Hughson's " History of London," 
vol. vi. p. 358 (1806-09). 

314 



The New River 

subdivision. Entick, writing in 1766, estimates the 
value of a share at that time, from a late sale, at 
£"8,000. At a sale by auction in London, in 1873, 
one quarter of a King's share was sold for ,£12,240, 
nearly £"49,000 for the whole share ; the income for 
the last year having been on this quarter share £448. 
In 1891 a xg-jyth part of a King's share was purchased 
for £"700; and on the 15th of November, 1893, in the 
open market, an undivided Adventurers' share fetched 
£"94,900. 

As regards the first cost of the New River works, 
the accidental destruction by fire in 1769 of the 
Company's early records makes it impossible to test 
the accuracy of the different estimates by comparison 
with them. Entick, who published his " History and 
Survey of London" in 1766, in a short notice of 
the New River, quotes Maitland word for word, 
merely saying, with reference to the cost : "He 
(Myddelton) began his work on the 20th February, 
1608, and with great difficulty, art, and industry, 
and a prodigious expense (of, as it is recorded, no 
less than £"500,000) " — although he probably could 
have got the information at first hand from the Com- 
pany itself. Maitland (edition of 1760) does not 
mention the cost. Smiles, in his " Lives of the 
Engineers" (1861-62), bases his calculation of it 
upon the repayments out of the Royal Treasury for 
charges disbursed by Myddelton ; entries of these 
in the Pell records show that the payments made 
on the King's account were £8,609 14s. 6d., so that, 
adding the same sum for Myddelton's share, the 
total expenditure was £"17,219 19s. But this 
evidently does not include other initial outlays, 

3i5 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

which run into high figures. A number of items of 
expenditure are mentioned in a circular dated 
February 27, 1812, issued by the New River 
Company to the occupiers of houses supplied with 
water by them, in which they allege that the forma- 
tion of their works in the time of the original 
projector, Hugh Myddelton, cost, "according to the 
best authorities, ,£500,000" — a very non-commital 
statement. In 1821 the Company furnished a Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons with an estimate 
of their capital expenditure, which included ,£369,600 
" for original purchase of the springs of Chadwell 
and Amwell ; remuneration to millers upon the river 
of Lea ; purchase of land for formation of river ; 
excavation of ground ; levelling and puddling of 
banks ; timber and brick wharfing at various places 
on banks 80 miles long ; embankment of valleys, 
and tunnelling at five guineas a yard"; ,£15,700 
for 157 brick, timber, and iron bridges; £"8,120 
for 57 culverts; ;£6,ooo for "the purchase of 
60 acres of land for reservoirs, ponds and head 
cisterns, and their construction, £"108,300. The total 
outlay down to 1820, including £32,000 paid for the 
York Buildings Waterworks, 1 was £"1,115,500." 

In more recent times the New River has enlarged 
its works, widening and otherwise improving the 
channel ; more capacious reservoirs have been con- 
structed, and a great additional supply of water 
has been obtained from the river Lea, and from 
numerous wells sunk in the chalk, through the 

1 These works, situate at the bottom of Villiers Street, Strand, 
getting into financial difficulties, were conveyed to the New 
River Company in 1818. 

316 



The New River 

London Clay, &c, at Ware, Cheshunt, Hornsey, 
and elsewhere ; but the general course and site of 
the works are nearly the same as in the time of 
Myddelton. 

The New River Company was for many years the 
only Company by which water was supplied to 
London ; seven others were subsequently formed, 
the Chelsea Waterworks being the earliest in 1723 
or 1724. With the advent of the water companies 
one might reasonably expect to find greatly improved 
conditions of water-supply, if not exactly ideal ones. 
This, however, was far from being the case. Mr. 
Jephson tells us in " The Sanitary Evolution of 
London" (1907) — among other interesting facts and 
figures — that the supply of water in the eighteen- 
fifties was not only very limited in quantity, but, 
with the exception of that supplied by one company, 
bad in quality. Moreover, the right of supplying 
this vital requirement, or, as it has been called, this 
" life-blood of cities," had been made over by 
Parliament to sundry private companies without 
taking any guarantee or security for a proper 
distribution to the people, or for the purity of the 
water, or the sufficiency of its supply. Although 
by the middle of the nineteenth century there was 
no portion of the metropolis into which the mains 
and pipes of some of the companies had not been 
carried, yet, as the companies were under no 
compulsion to supply it to all houses, large numbers, 
and particularly the poorer classes, received no 
supply. In the district supplied by the New River 
Company, containing about 900,000 persons, about 
one-third of the population were unsupplied ; and in 

3i7 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

the much smaller area of the Southwark Company's 
district about 30,000 persons had no supply. Even 
in 1850 it was computed that 80,000 houses in 
London, inhabited by 640,000 persons, were un- 
supplied with water. A very large proportion of 
the people could only obtain water from stand-pipes 
erected in the courts or streets, and that only at 
intermittent periods and for a very short time in 
the day. 

The great shortage of company-supplied water 
compelled large numbers to have recourse to the 
pumps which still existed in considerable numbers in 
many parts of London, the water from which was 
drawn from shallow wells. 

In June, 1904, the undertakings of seven out of 
the eight companies passed to the Metropolitan 
Water Board (constituted 1902), which took over 
their debts, liabilities, &c, and a month later the 
business of the New River Company passed to the 
same authority, which now control the whole water- 
supply of London. The cost to the ratepayers of 
London of this huge transfer was not much less than 
^"40,000,000. 



Artesian Wells. 



Many advantages were expected to have accrued 
to Londoners from the absorption of the old water 
companies, but these advantages, so confidently 
anticipated when the amalgamation was first mooted, 
have not been realised. On the contrary, the Water 
Board's charges under the new Metropolitan Water 

318 



Artesian Wells 

Board Charges Act (1907) are found to press very 
heavily upon large establishments, especially in the 
City proper, for there the rateable value on which 
the assessment is made is extremely high. In 
consequence of this the owners and occupiers of 
highly rated property, who are large users of water — 
in order to effect economy — now obtain their supplies 
by means of artesian wells. 1 

As these wells have their origin below that zone 
which is affected by the changing superficial tempera- 
ture of the seasons, the water is of an even tempera- 
ture and, when drawn from deep-seated springs, of 
great purity and abundance ; it is therefore hardly a 
matter for wonder to find that most large buildings 
now being erected in the metropolis are provided 
with their own artesian wells. 

The principle on which artesian wells are made 
may be thus briefly stated. Let us suppose a 
geographical basin of greater or less extent, in which 
two impermeable layers (as of clay) enclose between 
them a permeable layer (as of gravel, sand, or lime- 
stone). The rain-water falling on that part of this 
porous layer which comes to the surface, and which 
is called the outcrop, will filter through it, and following 
the natural fall of the ground will collect in the hollow 
of the basin, whence it cannot escape owing to the 
impermeable strata above and below it. If, now, 
a vertical hole be sunk down to the water-bearing 

1 One of the first artesian wells near London was bored in 
1794, at Norland House, the site of which is now occupied 
by Norland Square, on the north-west of Holland House, 
Kensington (" Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures, " 
Div. I., footnote, p. 79). y 

319 



Springs, Streams, and Spas of London 

stratum, the water striving to regain its level will spout 
out to a height which depends on the difference 
between the levels of the outcrop and of the point at 
which the boring is made. 1 The conformation of the 
London Basin under and around the City seems to 
fulfil all these conditions. 

In an article headed "London Wells" in the 
Daily Telegraph of September 14, 1909, there is a 
table, by no means complete, but which gives 
the depth, and gallons yielded per hour, of some 
dozen of the principal artesian wells installed in 
London. The depth of these range from 300 to 500 
feet, and the yield per hour is from 3,000 to 13,000 
gallons. Still larger quantities, and from greater 
depths, are obtained from wells in France. The most 
famous artesian well is perhaps that of Grenelle, 
formerly a village, now forming a south-west quarter 
of Paris, which it supplies with water. The water is 
brought up from the gault at a depth of nearly 1,800 
feet. It yields over 30,000 gallons an hour, the 
water rising with such force as to be propelled 
32 feet above the surface. One at Tours jets 6 feet 
above-ground, and, rushing up with great energy, 
yields 237 gallons per minute (14,220 gallons per 
hour). 

But these are all outdone by some remarkably 
deep artesian wells which have been struck in 
various parts of Australia, especially in what is 
termed the main artesian area of that continent, 
which is of immense extent, forming an irregular 
triangle, and covering a large part of Queensland, 
New South Wales, and South Australia. It is the 

1 Ganot's " Physics," 13th edition, 1890, pp. 99, 100. 
320 



Artesian Wells 

largest artesian basin known in the world, except 
that of Dakota, in America. Some of the bores are 
of great depth : the Dolgelly bore, New South 
Wales, is 4,086 feet deep ; the outputs are even more 
extraordinary; one near Richmond, North Queens- 
land, with a depth of 841 feet, has an output of 
1,500,000 gallons per day (or over 60,000 per hour) ; 
another bore in the same province yields 800,000 
gallons per day. The deepest bore is at Bimerah in 
Queensland : it goes down 5,045 feet, or nearly a 
mile. The well which gives the greatest flow is that 
at Charleville, in the same state, which averages over 
3,000,000 gallons per day. 

The cost of sinking artesian wells in London does 
not seem to be at all prohibitive, and when the 
ultimate saving is taken into consideration the capital 
expenditure usually proves to have been well laid out. 
At several places where wells have been sunk the 
cost is said not to exceed 3d. per 1,000 gallons, and 
even when compared with the old charge of the now 
defunct water companies, which was about 8d. per 
1,000 gallons, this method of obtaining water is 
sufficiently economical to warrant the sinking of 
artesian wells. 

A leading firm of well-engineers in Southwark, 
who are responsible for many of the wells lately 
sunk, have stated that about twenty wells have 
recently been bored in the City and thirteen in the 
West End, while over one hundred have been put 
down in the metropolitan area. Most of this work 
has been done for large business establishments, such 
as banks, breweries, public baths, co-operative stores, 
hotels, and railway companies. 

321 x 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

SHALLOW OR SURFACE WELLS AND PUMPS 
OF LONDON. 

AMONG the Returns made by the parochial authorities to 
the Board of Trade in 1872, with reference to the supply 
of water in the metropolis, is one giving the name, position, and 
depth, where known, of every public surface well within the 
metropolis, specifying which of them had been permanently 
closed at that date. The list, which fills several pages, is too 
long to transcribe at length, but the notes here following include 
some of the principal public wells and pumps named in the 
Return, besides a few others which, for some unexplained 
reason, are omitted from it. 

Beginning with the East End. In the parish of St. George's- 
in-the-East, there were two public pumps, open in 1872, the 
date of the Return, viz., one in Wellclose Square, within the 
enclosure, and not accessible to the public, the other within the 
churchyard gates, of which the public were allowed the free 
use. 

In the district of Whitechapel four public wells were known 
to exist, all of which, when the Return was made, were on the 
point of being filled up. 

Many more in this part of London are scheduled, but they 
need not be specified here. Passing on then towards the City, 
one may read in Strype that " besides those waters brought into 
the City from abroad ; it affords abundance of excellent springs 
everywhere within itself, the waters whereof are much 
commended : particularly the pump at St. Martin's Outwich 
Church ; the pump near St. Antholin's Church (Watling Street) : 
the pump in St. Paul's Churchyard, the pump in Christ's 

325 



Appendix 

Hospital : at all which places, and others, are iron dishes 
hanging, for the use of strangers to drink in." 



» i 



While excavations were being made in Shoreditch in 
connection with the electric lighting installation (about the year 
1897), an old well was disclosed, which, on measurements being 
taken, was found to be 20 feet deep and a yard in diameter, 
and to contain 7 feet of water. There were found in the well 
the elm-wood barrel and suction-pipe of a pump. Although 
unmistakably of ancient date, the brickwork was remarkably 
clean and perfect ; compact and mortared towards the top, but 
loose towards the bottom to allow the water to percolate into 
the well. The well was under the pathway in the High Street, 
two or three yards from the entrance to the Standard Theatre, 
close to the end of Holywell Lane, and in the district known as 
the Holywell Liberty. Unfortunately the well was filled in only 
three hours after its discovery, in order not to delay the work in 
hand ; so that no further investigations could be made. 2 

In the Liberty of Norton Folgate, in the High Street opposite 
No. 32, there was formerly a well which had been under the 
control of the Board of Works for the Whitechapel District 
since 1855, but was closed by that Board about 1869 or 1870. 

Facing Aldgate 3 High Street, at the point where Leadenhall 
Street and Fenchurch Street meet, is Aldgate Pump. This old 
pump is a well-known landmark of the City, and must have been 
a very familiar object to the antiquary, John Stow, who for 
nearly thirty years was a working tailor in the neighbourhood of 



1 Strype's " Stow," 1720, Bk. i. p. 27. 

2 Extract from a newspaper cutting — undated — from Pen- 
nant's " London," 1805, vol. iii., in the Guildhall Library. 

3 Aldgate is commonly supposed to be identical with Old 
Gate, but Mr. Loftie states that in a document in St. Paul's 
Cathedral, which must have been written before n 15, the 
name is spelt Alegate (Alegate = Allgate, i.e., gate for all, free 
of toll). The d was inserted from a mistaken notion, first by 
Stow, and after him by Dr. Stukeley, and the word was written 
Ealdgate, which is equivalent to Oldgate, not Aldgate. 

326 



Appendix 



Leaden Hall and Fenchurch Street : he alludes to it when he is 
describing Aldgate Ward, the principal street of which, he says, 
" beginneth at Aid Gate, stretching west to sometime a fayre 
well, where now a pumpe is placed." 

Aldgate Pump, more than any other, seems to have kept a firm 
hold upon the popular sentiment ; the origin of this may 
probably be traced back to the fifteenth century, when St. 
Michael's Well (so called from the neighbouring chapel of that 
name) occupied nearly the same spot. It is most likely that 
medicinal or holy virtues were claimed for the waters of St. 
Michael's Well. A pump was erected over the well probably 
about the latter part of the sixteenth century, when a row of 
houses on each side had formed a street. Previous to this, 
Fenchurch Street extended no further eastward than the grave- 
yard of St. Katherine Coleman, nor did Leadenhall Street extend 
further than Cree Lane. The space between the terminations 
of the two streets was occupied by mansions, with their court- 
yards and gardens. Some forty years ago (i.e., in the eighteen 
hundred and sixties) the pump was moved several feet further 
west, when the frontage of the property at the corner was set 
back to broaden the thoroughfare. The well of Aldgate was 
sunk in a spit of the gravel-bed extending northwards to 
Winchmore Hill. 1 Owing partly to the imaginary medicinal 
qualities of the water, and perhaps still more to its long-con- 
tinued use, the inhabitants resented, or at least obstructed, any 
proposals which were made for the removal of the pump. The 
continuance of its use by the public was, however, shown by 
chemical analysis to be attended with such grave risk to the 
public health that the well was in 1876 filled in, and a cistern 
below the ground connected with the New River supply sub- 
stituted. Thus, although the well is abolished, Aldgate Pump 
still exists. It is now enclosed in a stone casing of four sides, 
ornamented by bands of rustic work, and having a little gable 
roof : the spout is of bronze in the shape of a dog's head. 2 



1 " Antiquities of the Ward of Aldgate," by S. T. Robinson 
and C. Humphreys, 1871 ; and u Some Notes on the Ward of 
Aldgate," by R. Kemp, 1904. 

2 The previous structure, designed by Sir William Tite, had 
to make way, in 1870 or 1871, for the one described above 
(The Builder June 29, 1872.) 

327 



Appendix 



Some of the older maps and plans mark the well of St. Michael : 
the little pent-house which covered it is shown very distinctly 
in Agas's map. Views of the pump which succeeded it are not 
rare, but are of recent date. The Crace Collection contains a 
water-colour drawing of it by T. H. Shepherd — undated, but 
before 1853. r 

Besides the above, there were three other pumps in the Ward 
of Aldgate ; one at the corner of the Minories, opposite St. 
Botolph's Church. This one does not come into the 1872 
Return, but some time before its publication the dismantling of 
the pump had begun by the removal of the handle and the 
breaking of the nozzle. In spite of repeated and costly attempts, 
no sample of the water from the surface well in connection with 
it was obtained. 

In the churchyard of St. Katherine Coleman, which is situated 
a little to the south of Fenchurch Street and east of Mark Lane, 
was a well of unknown depth, but believed to be very deep, and 
in all probability of ancient date, the site of the present church 
having been occupied by one of fifteenth-century age. 

Another well in Aldgate Ward, under 30 feet in depth, with a 
pump over it, stood opposite Church Row, Fenchurch Street, 
directly in front of the " East India Arms " public-house, and 
was open at the date of the Return. There used to be a mark 
on the kerbstone, showing where the pump stood. The 
immediate cause of its removal was owing to the main drain 
deep sewer having completely exhausted its supply. The pump 
is marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1873-75. 

There was a well in Crutched Friars as far back as the 
sixteenth century. The Rev. Dr. Povah, in his " Annals of the 
Parish of St. Olave, Hart Street " (1904) gives an extract from 
the Burial Register, which bears this out. The entry runs 
thus : — 

" 1564, Aug. 9. Maister Gallierd dwelling over against the 
well not far from the Crochet Friars." 

The well here referred to was in the middle of the highway 



1 "A draft (draught) on Aldgate Pump" was a mercantile 
phrase for a bad note (Fielding's Works), " Essay on the 
Character of Men," vol. viii. p. 172. 

328 



Appendix 



at the south or lower end of Jewry Street, which is a continua- 
tion of Crutched Friars z to Aldgate. 

Stow notices the same well or pump, when he describes the 
boundaries of the parish of St. Olave : " So returning againe, 
they goe up towards Aldgate on the east side, so far as directly 
against the signe of the Cocke, returning back on the west side, 
to the pumpe in Crochet Friars, and then to the place where 
they began." 2 

The modern pump is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 
1873-75, on the west side of Crutched Friars, nearly opposite 
George Street. 

On the north side of the Tower glacis garden there was a 
well, 27 feet deep, with an iron pump over it, which, the Return 
states : " though now out of order, will shortly be repaired." 
This was of great use for the garden, and having a spout into 
Postern Row, was also a great convenience to the inhabitants in 
the vicinity. 

Replying to a recent inquiry made by the writer as to when 
the well was closed, &c, the Secretary of the Office of Works 
states, in a letter dated October 27, 1909 : " The Board have no 
definite information as to the antiquity of the well. The pump 
was put up by Phillips and Hopwood in 1801 (as inscribed on 
it) ; but it is not known when its use was discontinued." 3 It 
now (1909) stands at the top of the bank within the garden 
railings, in or near its original position. Drinking water is 
supplied from a small drinking-fountain in the gardens just 
below, and this is drawn from the mains. 

An engraving of the Mint in Hughson's " London" (1806-09, 
vol. ii.) brings in part of the Tower glacis overlooking the moat, 
and on the left of the picture is the pump. It is also marked on 
the Ordnance Survey map of 1873-75. 



1 Crutched Friars — so called after the building of the Great 
Monastery of the brethren of the holy cross ; Crouched or 
Crossed Friars, distinguished by the cross upon their dress. 
The street in the fourteenth century was known as Hart Street. 

a Stow's " Survey," Strype's, 1720, vol. i. Bk. 2, p. 41. 

3 The removal of the houses known as Postern Row, between 
1883 and 1887, was probably about the time that this pump 
ceased to be used. 

329 



Appendix 



The following description annexed to the Return applies to a 
well, 23 feet deep (open in 1872), in front of the doorway of St. 
Dunstan's Chambers, at the corner of St. Dunstan's Alley, in 
Idol Lane, near the Church of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East : " The 
soil is gravel, and at the bottom is placed chalk to the depth of 
one foot, which is occasionally taken out and cleaned. The 
water is considered so good that the fishermen from Billingsgate 
are in the habit of filling their casks with it to take to sea ; 
besides being much used in the neighbourhood." 

About the year 1873 there was a discussion in the vestry as to 
sinking an artesian well for the supply of water in place of the 
pump ; but it was found to be too costly, and the scheme was 
never carried out. 1 Subsequently the well was closed and the 
pump was moved to where it now stands in ±he churchyard of 
St. Dunstan, against the south wall of the church. It is cast in 
the shape of a fluted column and has the date 1818 inscribed 
on it. 

In Leadenhall Hides Market there was a well about 30 feet 
deep. It is thus referred to in the Return : " This well some 
years ago lost water owing, as is supposed, to the deepening of 
the sewers and the extensive excavations for the large buildings 
in the vicinity." A pump is marked on the Ordnance Survey 
map (1873-75) in the position mentioned above. 

In the Leaden Hall 2 proper was another well of the same 
depth as the last. " This well was sunk in the fifteenth century 
within the Hall, and subsequently a pump was put up in Half 
Moon Passage, but the water has in like manner gone, and the 
well is now out of use." 



1 This information was obtained through the kindness of Mr. 
J. E. Shearman, M.A., Vestry Clerk of St. Dunstan's. 

2 Stow says of Leaden Hall : "I read that in the year 1309 
it belonged to Sir Hugh Nevill, Knight." The researches of 
Mr. Riley show that the Hall belonged to the City as early as 
1320. It was converted into a granary, and probably a market, 
by Sir Simon Eyre (or, in mediaeval rolls, Symken Eyer), a 
draper, and Lord Mayor of London in 1445. The portion of 
the market in question, viz., the Leadenhall Street end, was 
rebuilt in 1881. 

330 




A.S. Foord fecit. 

PUMP IN CHURCHYARD OF ST. DUNSTAN-IN-THE-EAST. 
From an original sketch by the author (1909). 



To face p. 330. 



Appendix 



The setting up of a pump in Lime Street Ward is thus 
recounted by Stow : " In the year 1576, partly at the charges of 
the parish of St. Andrew (Undershaft), and partly at the charges 
of the Chamber of London, a water pumpe was raised in the 
high streete of Limestreete Warde {i.e., Leadenhall Street), 
near unto Limestreete Corner : for the placing of which pumpe 
. . . they were forced to dig more than two fadome. . . . 
Having set up the pumpe, with oft-repairing and great charges 
to the Parish (it) continued not four and twenty yeares, but 
being rotted, was taken up, and a new set in place, in the yeare 
1600." x 

By the Church of St. Martin Outwich, formerly standing at 
the east corner of Threadneedle Street, facing Bishopsgate 
Street, there was an old well, of unknown depth, which was 
permanently closed about the year 1862. Its position is said by 
Stow to have been over against the east end of the church, and 
that it had two buckets so fastened that the drawing up of the 
one let down the other ; " but now of late turned into a pumpe. ,, 
The church was pulled down in 1874, and the site is now 
occupied by the head office of the Capital and Counties Bank. 

In Allen's " History of London " (1827-29) there is an en- 
graving of the pump in the position described by Stow ; it is 
a plain square structure, with a lamp on the top ; the date is 
1794. Godwin and Britton's work on the " Churches of London " 
(1839) shows that this had been replaced by one of rather 
uncommon shape, which might have been copied from a classic 
model. 

In Bishopsgate Street Without there was also a pump, which 
stood on the edge of the pavement in front of the Church of 
St. Botolph. At the Bishopsgate Institute and Free Library 
there is a large, well executed engraving of the church, drawn 
and etched by A. P. Moore, and aquatinted by G. Hawkins, the 
date of publication being 1802. In this picture, the pump, being 
in deep shadow, cannot be made out very clearly. In another 
smaller and less pretentious print it is seen to be of the ordinary 
square shape, panelled on the sides, and with a drinking trough. 



1 Stow's " Survey," text of 1603. Ed. by C. L. Kingsford, 
1908, vol. i. p. 160. 

331 



Appendix 



No mention is made of this pump in the 1872 Return, but it is 
marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1873-75. 

It was in existence in 1878, as reference is made to it in a 
communication received by the Commissioners of Sewers, 
reported at their meeting of January 22nd in that year, from 
the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Asso- 
ciation, who proposed to remove the iron troughs from the 
pumps in Cornhill and Bishopsgate Street, and to provide 
granite troughs with self-acting apparatus for the supply of 
water, &c. (the City Press). It is probable that the well 
supplying the pump had been filled in before this time, in 
accordance with the recommendation of the Commissioners of 
Sewers addressed to all the ward and parochial authorities 
in 1875. 

A stand-pipe now indicates the spot where the pump formerly 
stood. 

On the west side of Gracechurch Street, in Bell Yard, there 
was a well, with a depth of about 30 feet. The pump over it 
stood in front of the Bell Tavern — an old house, having the 
date 1827 on a bell which is built into the wall of the house 
between the upper windows. The remarks in the Return are 
these: "The water from this well has recently (i.e., before 1872), 
been withdrawn from it because of some interference with the 
sewer in Gracechurch Street. The Ordnance Survey map of 
1873-75 indicates the spot where the pump stood. 

A well was open in 1872 under the roadway of Cornhill, nearly 
midway between No. 24 and 27, about 30 feet in depth. " The 
well," the Return states, "in April, 1871, had about 14 feet of 
water in it, but later, i.e., in August and September of the same 
year, there were only about 3 feet of water in it, at which 
depth the water would not rise into the pipe." 

At the south-east corner of the Royal Exchange, standing 
on the edge of the kerb, with a granite drinking trough x in 
front of it, is Cornhill pump. It will repay a few moments' 



1 These were formerly of iron, but about thirty years ago 
they were, in some cases, removed, and granite troughs with 
self-acting apparatus provided. 

332 



Appendix 

inspection. The case is an ornamental obelisk of iron, having 
at the bottom, but now hidden by the trough, the name « Nathaniel 
Wright, Architect " ; the founders being Messrs. Phillips and 
Hopwo'od— makers, it will be remembered, of the pump in 
the Tower gardens. The decorations consist of emblematical 
figures in relief, three of which are the badges of old-estab- 
lished Fire Offices, representing respectively the " Sun," the 
" Phcenix," and the " London Assurance." The fourth repre- 
sents the second Royal Exchange. The side which faces the 
roadway bears the following very interesting inscription : 
"On this spot a well was made, and a House of Correction 1 
built thereon by Henry Wallis, 2 Mayor of London, in the 
year 1282." Further details are given on the side facing the 
pavement : " The well was discovered, and enlarged, and this 
pump erected in the year 1799, by the contributions of the 
Bank of England, the East India Company, the neighbouring 
Fire Offices, together with the Bankers and Traders of the 
Ward of Cornhill." The well had been laid open by a sinking 
of the pavement in front of the Royal Exchange, March 16, 

J 799- 

A correspondent of the City Press, of August, 21, 1875, writes : 

" I remember the time when the Cornhill;Pump was besieged 
by quite a little crowd of persons with cans, bottles, &c, to 
get some pure spring water." It may be doubted if this defi- 
nition was not too flattering, for even then the purity of some of 
the shallow- well waters of London had been called in question. 

The well and pump have been disused for some years past ; 
the water which fills the trough, so much enjoyed by the thirsty 
horses of passing vehicles, being derived from the New River 
Company's mains. The iron case of the pump remains, but 
deprived of handle and spout. The whole structure would be 
much the better for a coat of paint, which would not only 
improve its appearance, but would also tend to arrest decay. 

The pump is figured in Mr. Charles Welch's " Modern History 
of the City of London" (1896) : the reproduction apparently 



1 From its fancied resemblance to a large cask standing on 
end, this building was nicknamed the Tonne (Tun). 

9 In old documents the spelling is very varied—" le Galeys," 
" le Waleys," and " le Walies " ; showing the influence of the 
Norman- French language on surnames. 

333 



Appendix 



copied from a print in the Crace Collection (No. 1972), Rawle 
del. et sculp., 1800. There is also a photograph of it, as it 
appears to-day, in an entertaining little book of " Old London 
Memorials," by Mr. W. J. Roberts (1909). 

The handsome drinking fountain in the open space at the east 
end of the Royal Exchange, in front of the Peabody statue, was 
erected in 1878 by the authorities of Broad Street Ward to 
supply the place of the pump in Bartholomew Lane, the use of 
which was interdicted by the Commissioners of Sewers, on the 
recommendation of the Medical Officer of Health, in his report 
of 1875. The Bartholomew Lane site being too circumscribed, 
the Commissioners sanctioned the erection of the fountain at 
the northern end of Royal Exchange Avenue. The main por- 
tion of the fountain is of Penryn granite, and has four basins ; 
the canopy over the white marble group (sculptured by Mr. 
Dalon, of Chelsea), is of bronze. Mr. J. S. Edmeston was the 
architect, and the Drinking Fountain Association supplied the 
hydraulic work. 

A full-page engraving of this fountain occurs in the Builder of 
April 6, 1878. 

The pump in Bartholomew Lane was at one time much used 
by the people of the neighbourhood, who trusted implicitly in its 
water, as appears from a letter to the City Press of October 23^ 
1875, which was only a short time before its removal. During 
the later years of its existence it was also used by the cabmen to 
water their horses. From its position in a side street, away from 
the main thoroughfare, it was never so important as those more 
centrally placed. Where the pump stood is a square pillar letter- 
box, and in front of it a stand-pipe for the use of the few horse- 
cabs on the rank ; placed there in 1877, at the request of occu- 
piers of premises in Bartholomew Lane and neighbourhood, in 
substitution of the water from the pump. 

The position of the " Guildhall " or " Corporation " pump was 
in Guildhall Buildings, between the Court of King's Bench (now 
the Lord Mayor's Court) and the Bankruptcy Court, which has 
been superseded by a large block of offices, built in 1890. The 
depth of the well was about 50 feet. It was not permanently 
closed in 1872, but the handle of the pump had been taken away, 
rendering it, of course, unusable. Not being among those 
reported upon by the Medical Officer in 1875, it had probably 
been already removed. 

334 



Appendix 



The Parish Pump of St. Michael Bassishaw ' stood on the foot- 
way opposite No. 18, Basinghall Street, by the Guildhall Library. 
It was placed there under a bequest of one John Bankes, who, 
in 1630, made an endowment of 13s. 4d. a year for keeping the 
pump in repair. The well beneath it was about 30 feet in depth. 
The pump was open in 1872, and was at that time enclosed in 
the hoardings around the buildings of the City Library, which 
was opened on November 5th of the same year. The pump 
was finally removed in 1876 by the parish authorities of St. 
Michael Bassishaw, at the request of the late Commissioners of 
Sewers, " as an obstruction and hindrance to the public going." 2 

Against the Church of St. Olave, Jewry, which was situated on 
the west side of the Old Jewry, was a pump over a well of unknown 
depth. This had been closed before the Return was made. The 
old church (destroyed in the Great Fire) was named St. Olave, 
Upwell, from the presence of a well under the east end of the 
church, which was pulled down in 1888. The tower has been 
preserved and is used as the rectory house to St. Margaret, 
Lothbury. 

In Russia Row, Honey Lane Market, within the railings that 
enclosed the City of London School on the north side, was a well 
with a pump over it, which is understood to have been closed 
some years before 1872. Depth not known. The school, it may 
be noted, was removed to a site on the Victoria Embankment in 
1882 ; the new school was opened in 1883, and the freehold 
building of the old school was sold privately in the same year. 
The site is occupied by Milk Street Buildings. The writer was 
recently informed by the secretary of the school that no record 
had been kept of the year in which the well was closed. 

The pump is marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1873-75. 

In the churchyard of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, within the 
railings on the west side of the church, and having a pump over 



1 The town residence of the Basing family, known as Basing's- 
haw, or hall, gave its name to the street. Solomon Basing was 
Mayor of London in 1216. The Bankruptcy Court was built in 
1820 on the site of the old mansion. 

2 These details were kindly furnished by Mr. P. W. Bicknell, 
of the Public Health Department, Guildhall. 

335 



Appendix 



it, was a well about 32 feet deep. The site is occupied by a 
pillar letter-box. There is no other well known of in this parish. 

In the vestry is a model of the church, designed and executed 
in wood, about seventy years ago, by John Watts, who was 
sexton of the church from 1835 to 1859. It was presented to 
the church by his son. The pump is shown in the model in the 
place it occupied close to the wall of the church. It also 
appears in a water-colour drawing of Bow Church, by G. 
Shepherd, 1812 (Crace Cat., No. 1850), which is reproduced in a 
history of the fabric by the Rev. A. W. Hutton, M.A., the 
present rector. 

After the pump had been condemned by the sanitary authori- 
ties, a drinking fountain was erected by Messrs. Copestake, 
Moore, Crampton and Co., of Bow Churchyard, on November 4, 
1859, at the south-east corner of the church, next to Bow Lane. 

Describing the boundaries of Cripplegate Ward, Stow says, 
the ward l< runneth west to a pumpe where of old there was a 
fayre well with two buckets, at the south corner of Alderman 
burie Streete." The well is shown on Agas's map, at the 
meeting of the Old Jewry (which at that time was of greater 
extent), Milk Street, Lad Lane, and Aldermanbury. 

Strype defines Little Britain (which, according to Stow, took 
that name " of the Dukes of Brittany lodging there "), as coming 
out of Aldersgate Street by St. Botolph's Church and running 
west to a pump, where it opens into a broad street, and then 
as turning northwards to Duck Lane (Duke Street), where it has 
a passage to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In the latter part of 
the seventeenth, and early part of the eighteenth century, Little 
Britain was much inhabited by booksellers, especially from the 
pump to Duck Lane, and at that time was a great emporium of 
learned authors. The shop of Edward Ballard (one of the last 
surviving booksellers of the eighteenth-century school), bearing 
the sign of the " Globe," stood over against the pump. Later 
still Washington Irving, wandering contemplatively in Little 
Britain, gives an admirable picture of that ancient mart of 
bibliopolists in his " Sketch Book." 

There seem to be no later references to this pump, though it 
would appear that one existed here down to the nineteenth 
century, but which has disappeared long since. No pump is 
marked hereabouts on the maps of the Ordnance Survey. 

336 



Appendix 



On the east side of Aldersgate Street was Fann's Alley, just 
without the Bars ; * the entrance, says Maitland (1739), " broad 
enough for carts, and but indifferently built and inhabited." 
The Alley thus referred to was in due time widened and 
improved by rebuilding, and became Fann Street. A peculiarity 
about this street is that its south side is in the City, while its 
north side is in the Borough of Finsbury ; the line of demarca- 
tion passing down the middle of the street. 

After much inquiry and record searching, the writer has 
been unsuccessful in fixing the exact position of the pump here, 
but if the memory of an old inhabitant of the district can be 
trusted, it stood at the Aldersgate Street end of Fann Street. 
This pump was one of the four reported upon by Dr. Saunders 
in 1875, which led to its being ultimately condemned and 
removed. For some time before this, however, the water was 
considered dangerous, and there was considerable difficulty in 
preventing children and others from pumping and drinking the 
water. As if to compensate the inhabitants for the loss of their 
pump, Mr. Alderman Besley, the Alderman of the Ward of 
Aldersgate, who died December 17, 1876, provided in his will 
for the setting up of two drinking fountains ; these, in the 
words of the testator, were "to be erected and placed flat 
against the two City boundary posts — at a cost not exceeding 
six hundred pounds." These two fountains are identical in 
design, and consist of obelisks built of grey granite and other 
coloured stones, each having a lamp on the top, and two basins. 
An inscription on them records the gift. 

In the parish of St. John, Clerkenwell, a well in Ray Street, 
with a pump near it, and connected with it, was open in 1856 
and closed in 1857. It was 15 feet deep, and was called 
11 Clerks' Well," being in fact one of the three wells mentioned 
by FitzStephen in his description of London in the twelfth 
century. 

In the Holborn district there were, besides others of less note, 
the following wells, all provided with pumps for raising the 



1 " A pair of postes," as Stow calls them, which marked the 
City boundary in that direction. The name of Aldersgate Bars, 
by which they were known, long continued in use, and is 
marked on old plans of the Ward, but it is now obsolete. 

337 Y 



Appendix 



water, viz. : In the centre of the crossing between Gloucester 
Street and Devonshire Street, a well 23 feet deep. In Gray's 
Inn Road, at the corner of Queen's Head Court, was another, 
25 feet in depth ; and in Red Lion Square at the eastern end of 
the garden, which occupies the centre, was a well 20 feet deep. 
These are all marked on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1873-75. 

The parish of St. Clement Danes contained three public 
wells : One at New Inn l(which adjoins Clement's Inn) — depth, 
25 feet ; another in front of Clement's Inn Hall — depth 
unknown ; the remarks upon this well in the Return are that 
there had been no water in it for eight years (i.e., since 1864). 
This was the far-famed " holy " well of St. Clement. A third 
was in the north-east corner of the churchyard of St. Clement 
Danes — of unknown depth, which, at the date of the Return 
(1872), had been closed for nearly twenty years, or about 1853 
or 1854. I* * s marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of 
I873-5- 

Within the Liberty of the Rolls, there was formerly a well in 
Chancery Lane, between the houses numbered 89 and 90 re- 
spectively ; it was about 18 feet deep. The escape of gas from 
the mains having affected the water, the then Paving Board of 
the Rolls Liberty, about the year 1847, closed the well and had 
it filled up. At the same time they caused another well to be 
sunk in Breams Buildings, erecting a pump. This was open in 
1872, and in use by the public, and was about 18 feet deep. It 
is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1873-75 on the north 
side of Breams Buildings, near St. Thomas's Church. 

In the precinct of the Savoy, on the east side of Savoy Street, 
at the back of No. 7, Lancaster Place, a well existed which was 
closed about the year 1869, on account of a threatened visitation 
of cholera. The pump is still (1909) in situ and bears this 
inscription upon it : " Repaired by the Commissioners for 
Paving Savoy Precinct, 1842. John Cochran, Chapel Warden." 
The pump is of cast iron, painted red, octagonal in shape, and 
the sides panelled by way of ornament. 

In parishes of St. Anne and St. James, Westminster, were 
several wells all permanently closed when the return was issued : 

333 



Appendix 



one in the former parish, opposite to the parish church in Dean 
Street, very deep, was closed about 1856. 

The pump in Great Dean's Yard, about 1870, was an unpre- 
tending iron structure, without ornamental details of any kind ; 
but happily for those who lived near it, and for St. Peter's 
College (better known as Westminster School), it was always 
ready with its best of spring water. But between the years 
1870 and 1872 it ran dry. 

South of the Thames. There was a well on the north side of 
St. Thomas's Street, in front of St. Thomas's (old) Hospital. 

In Bermondsey. When the Return was made there were no 
wells in this parish open to the public and used for drinking. 
The only public wells in the parish, as far as could be ascer- 
tained, were at Valentine Place, Long Lane, Marigold Court, 
Star Corner, but these had all been closed many years. 

In the parish of St. George the Martyr, there were about 
thirteen wells, but these were closed by the Vestry since the 
passing of the Metropolis Management Act of 1855. 

In a report by Dr. W. Sedgwick Saunders (Medical Officer of 
Health) on some chemical analyses, which he had made, of the 
waters from the surface wells and pumps remaining in the City 
of London, and presented to the Commissioners of Sewers in 
1875, he states that there were at that time only four pumps to 
which the public had free access in the City of London, namely, 
at Aldgate, Bartholomew Lane, Crutched Friars, and Fann 
Street. These were all that remained of the thirty-five public 
pumps which were in use in the City in 1866 (the year of 
cholera), some having been condemned by Dr. Saunders's pre- 
decessor, and closed by the local authorities, whilst others had 
become dry by the construction of the deep sewers and sub- 
ways, which utterly exhausted the sources of the supplies to the 
surface wells in connection with them. 

Some years later, in 1886, in the course of a discussion in the 
Commission of Sewers, on the water supply of the City, Dr. 
Saunders said that for the last twelve years no well had been 
closed of a greater depth than 30 feet. These wells had been 
practically closed by basements and the Underground Railway. 

Only a few words need be said here in reference to the 
results of the chemical examination to which Dr. Saunders 
submitted the water from the City pumps. A glance at the 

339 



Appendix 



table drawn up by him shows that the specimens taken from 
the four pumps above mentioned are polluted with albuminoid 
ammonia (most probably of organic origin), in poisonous 
quantities. 

The whole of Dr. Saunders's table of analyses is not given, but 
the extract below will be sufficient to show the marked contrast 
between the samples of good and bad waters. He explains 
that the variations noticed in the different samples of the same 
water depend upon the time passed between the drawing of the 
water from the well and its analysis, upon the state of the rain- 
fall, and upon other circumstances. 



Analyses of Waters from the City Pumps, from Samples 
Operated Upon by Dr. Saunders in His Laboratory at 
Various Periods, and in Different Weathers, During the 
Year 1875 : — 





Grains per Gallon. 


Parts pe 


■ Million. 








Free 


Albuminoid 




Solids. 


Chlorine. 


Ammonia. 


Ammonia. 


Good. 










New River Company ... 


177 


1*1 


O'OO 


o'o6 


Thames 


18-5 


1*2 


O'OI 


0*06 


Bad. 










Aldgate Pump 


103 


10-5 


072 


0*12 


Aldgate Pump 


108 


9'4 


0-48 


0-08 


Aldgate Pump 


not taken 


io-s 


0-25 


0*26 


Bartholomew Lane 


42 


4'3 


r8o 


0-08 


Bartholomew Lane 


5o 


4' 1 


1*40 


0-08 


Crutched Friars 


73 


4*3 


0*04 


0"I0 


Fann Street 


142 


9-9 


2'20 


0'22 



Dr. W. Collingridge, the Medical Officer of Health for the 
City, kindly communicated to the writer the following notes, 
which describe how the last of the pumps were finally dealt 
with. 

As the result of Dr. Saunders's report in 1875 the late Com- 
missioners of Sewers passed the following resolution on 
November 2nd of that year : — 

" That a copy of the Medical Officer's report of the 19th of 
October in relation to Pumps be sent to the Deputy of each Ward 

340 



Appendix 



and to the Churchwardens of the Parishes in the City where 
such Pumps are situated, with a letter pointing their attention 
to the expediency of having the said Pumps closed, and warning 
them of the danger that may arise from the water being used 
for drinking purposes and that the Committee be authorised to 
investigate the condition of the Wells with the sanction of the 
proper authorities." 

This resulted in the closing of the wells mentioned in the 
report, viz., Fann Street, Bartholomew Lane, Crutched Friars, 
and Aldgate. 



341 



INDEX 



Acton Wells, 156-158 

"Adam and Eve" Tavern, St. Pancras, 80 

Agas' Map of London, 33, 43, 65, 103 

Agnes le Clair, 108 

Aldermanbury Church (St. Mary the Virgin), 266 

Aldermanbury, Pump in, 336 

Aldersgate Street, Drinking fountains in, 337 

Aldgate pump, 326, 341 

Allen, Benjamin, M.B., 216, 238 

All Hallows on the Wall, 30 

Allport, Douglas, historian of Camberwell, 209 

Analyses of mineral waters — 

Beulah Spa, 223 

Biggin Hill, Beulah Hill, 228, 229 

Hampstead Wells, 152 

Kilburn Wells (two), 164 

Streatham Wells, 236 
Armstrong, John, proprietor of Pancras Wells, 81 
Arnold, F., 231, 233 

Ashton, John, on the Fleet River, 105, 197 
Assembly Room, Hampstead, 141 
Assembly Room (new), Hampstead, 147 
Aubrey, John, antiquary, 183, 229, 230 
Aye Brook or Eye Brook, 48 

Bagnigge House, 65 

Bagnigge Wells, 65-74 

Bank of England, 32, 34 

Banqueting House, 270 

Barge Yard, Bucklersbury, 28, 36 

Barker, Mr. Cephas, proprietor of Beulah Spa Hydro' and Hotel, 227 

Barnet Wells, 152-155 

Bartholomew Lane, Pump in, 334, 341 

Basinghall Street, Parish pump of St. Michael Bassishaw in, 335 

Bateman, Mrs., at Sadler's Wells Theatre, 88 

Battle Bridge, 65, 74, 75 

Bayswater Brook, otherwise the Westbourne, 48 

Bayswater or Roundhead Conduit, 282-286 

Bedwell, Rev. William, historian of Tottenham, 125 

Beighton, Henry, on London Bridge Waterworks, 301, 303 

" Bell " Tavern, Kilburn, 161 

Bell Yard, Gracechurch Street, Pump in, 332 

343 



Index 

Bermondsey, Public wells in, 339 

Bermondsev Spa, 190-193 

Berry, Mr. Walter, Shad well, 121 

Besant, Sir Walter, 43, 124, 181, 247, 262 

Bethlehem Hospital (old site), 30 

Beulah Spa, Upper Norwood, 221-228 

Bevis, Dr. John, 68 

Bew's Corner, Lordship Lane, 211 

Biggin Hill, Well at White Lodge, 228-229 

Bishopsgate Street Without, Pump at St. Botolph's Church, 331 

Bishop's Well, at Tottenham, 128 

Black Mary's Hole, 67 

Blanch, W. H., History of Camberwell, 208 

Blemund's Ditch, 44 

Bliss, John, M.R.C.S., on Hampstead waters, 143 

on Kilburn waters, 162 
Blomfield Street, 30 
Boss or Conduit, 253 
Bradford, Mr. C. A., on Ladywell, 199 
Bray, W., 214 
Brayley, E.W., 183 
Brayley and Walford, 209, 234 
Breams Buildings, Pump on north side of, 338 
Brewer, J. Norris, Assembly House at Acton, 157 
Bride Lane, 60 
Bridewell Dock, 41 
Bridewell, Palace of, 58, 59 
Bruce Castle, Tottenham, 128-129 
Budge Row, 35 

Burbage, Richard, Curtein Theatre, 117 
Burney, Miss Fanny, mentions Sadler's Wells, 86 
Burton, Decimus, architect, 223 

By field, Dr. T., account of mineral spring at Hoxton, 120 
Byron, Lord, at Dulwich, 212 

Camberwell, 207-210 

Campbell, Thomas, 220 

Cardigan House, Richmond, 238, 243 

Chancery Lane, Well in, 338 

Charterhouse, Water supply, 263 

Cheapside in the Middle Ages, 260 

Chigwell, 131, 132 

Christ's Hospital, Pump in, 325 

Churchfield Well, Hackney, 123 

Clement's Inn, 61 

Clement's Well, 60-65 

Clerks' Well, 100-105, 337 

Cloak Lane, Channel of the Wallbrook, 31 

Cob, water-carrier so called, 273 

Cob's Court, Blackfriars, 273 

Coling, J. T., of Well's Cottage, Upper Sydenham, 218 

Conduits — 

Aldermanbury, Conduit at, 276 

Aldgate, Conduit without, 269 

344 



Index 

Conduits (continued) — 

Bayswater or " Roundhead " Conduit, 282-287 

Bishopsgate, Conduit at, 269 

Cambridge, Conduit at, 280 

Cheapside, Standard in, 258, 278 

Cornhill, The Standard in, whence distances were measured, 276, 
278, 279 

Cornhill, Tun in, 262, 263, 278 

Dowgate, Conduit at, 278 

Fleet Street Conduit, 266 

Gracechurch Street Conduit, 261, 276, 278 

Great Conduit, Cheapside, 254, 255, 260, 278 

Greenwich Park Conduits, 293, 294 

Hyde Park Conduit, 292 

Lamb's Conduit, 271, 272 

Little Conduit, Cheapside, 256, 278 

London Wall, Conduit at, 269 

Oxford, Conduit at, 280 

Queen Square, Bloomsbury, Conduit in, 290-292 

Stocks Market, Little Conduit by, 256, 278 

Tyburn Conduit, 252, 253 

Wells, Somerset, Conduit at, 280 

White Conduit, 264 
Conduit Fields or Shepherd's Fields, Hampstead, 47, 151 
Conduit of London, afterwards the Great Conduit, 254 
Constable, John, R.A., at Hampstead, 148 
Cornhill pump and well, 332, 333 
Corporation or Guildhall pump, 334 

Cox, Francis, proprietor of "The Green Man," Dulwich, 212, 213 
Cox's Walk, 214 
Craven Hill, 49 

Crisp, Richard, on Richmond, 243 
Crosby, Mr. Anthony, on the Fleet River, 46 
Crowder's Well, 107 

Crutched Friars, well and pump, 328, 329, 341 
Culpeper, Nicholas, 215 
Curtain Road, 119 
Curtein Theatre, 117 

Curtis Brothers, present proprietors of Streatham Wells, 236, 237 
Cutlers' Hall, 34 

Davies, A. Morley, 250, 285, 288 

Davis, H. G., on Knightsbridge, 51 

Davis, John, lessee of Bagnigge Wells, 70, 72 

Dean Street, Westminster, well in, 339 

Death, Robert, of "The Falcon," 186 

Delany, Mrs., on Islington Spa, 93 

Dennis, George, C.M.G., 173 

Devol's Neckinger, public house, 189 

Dibdin, Charles, 87 

Diprose, John, 62 

Dobie, Roland, 44 

Dodswell, George, proprietor of the " London Spaw," 97 

"Dog and Duck" (St. George's Spa), 195-199 

345 



Index 



Domesday Survey, 40, 43, 90, 122, 125, 131, 155, 207 

Dour, possible origin of Dow-gate, 30 

Dowgate Dock or Port, 268 

Dowgate Hill, 32 

Dufneld, John, at Hampstead, 141, 142 

Dugdale, Sir William, 46, 106, 108, 116, 118, 130, 289 

Dulwich Grove, 212 

Dulwich Wells, 210-214 

Dyers' Hall, 33 

Eastfield, William, Mayor of London, 256, 266 

Edgeworth, Miss Maria, on Bagnigge Wells, 71 

Effra River, 181-186 

Eia, Estate of, 48 

Eliza Place, Islington, 96 

Elov, St., Well of, at Tottenham, 125-130 

Evance, Elizabeth, Sydenham Wells, 220 

Evance, William, Sydenham Wells, 218 

Evans, Dr. John, on Richmond, 242 

Evelyn, John, 90, 196, 204, 208, 214 

Faggeswell or Fagswell, 106 

Fairman, Elizabeth, Sydenham Wells, 221 

Fairman, John, Sydenham Wells, 218 

Falcon Brook, 186 

Fann Street, Pump in, 337, 341 

Farringdon Road, 45 

Fielding, James, lessee of Beulah Spa, 225 

Finsbury, 27, 31 

FitzStephen, William, 30, 53, 54, 60, 101, 116 

" Flask " Tavern, Hampstead, 140 

Flask Walk, Hampstead, 140 

Fleet Bridge, 42, 267 

Fleet Ditch, applied to lower part of the Fleet River, 42 

Fleet River (or Holebourne), 40-46 

Fleet Street Conduit or Standard, 266 

Fleet Street, discoveries of old waterpipes in, 266 

Fleet Street, water supply, 265 

Forcer, Francis, lessee of Sadler's Wells Theatre, 84 

Forcer, the younger, lessee of Sadler's Wells Theatre, 85 

Fothergill, Dr. John, on St. George's Spa water, 196 

Frewen, Dr., of Chigwell, 132 

Gainsborough, Earl of, 139 

Gardner, C. W., Acton Wells, 157 

Genibella, Frederico, 305 

George III., visit to Sydenham Wells, 219 

Gibbons, Dr., Hampstead physician, 143 

Glennie's Academy, Dulwich Grove, 212 

Godbid, W., on Shooter's Hill Spring, 203 

Godewelle, 106 

Goodcheape, Charles, 204 

Goodwin, Mr. Thomas, surgeon, 144 

Gray's Inn Lane, 65 

346 



Index 



Great Dean's Yard, Westminster, Pump in, 339 

Green, J. R., historian, 27 

" Green Man " Tavern at Dulwich, 212 

" Green Man " Tavern at Hampstead, 142 

Greenwich Park, Conduits, etc., in, 293, 294 

Grey Friars Monastery, water system, 290 

Grimaldi, Joseph, at Sadler's Wells Theatre, 87 

"Grove" Tavern, Dulwich, 212 

Guidol, Dr. Thomas, 83 

Guildhall or Corporation pump, 334 

Hackney, Wells of, 122-125 

Halhed, John, proprietor of the " London Spaw," 96 

Hampstead Assembly Rooms, 141 

Hampstead Hill, geology of, 137 

Hampstead Wells, 137-152 

Heckethorn, C. W., 209 

Hedger, J., " Dog and Duck," 197 

Heisch, Professor C, analysis of Hampstead waters, 150 

Herbert, William, 191 

Highbury Barn, 244 

Hockley-in-the-Hole, 41, 104 

Holborn Bridge, 44 

Holborn District, Wells in the, 337-338 

Holebourne (or Fleet), its course described, 40-46 

Holland, John, proprietor of Islington Spa, 94 

Holt waters, 82 

Holy Wells, 53-57 

Holy Well, Shoreditch, 115-119 

Holy Well, Strand, 62-65 

Hone, William, 60, 76, 103, 113, 148, 197, 265 

" Horns " Tavern, 80 

" Horse-at-the-Well " Inn, Woodford Wells, 131 

Horseshoe Bridge, over the Wallbrook, 35 

Houblon, Sir John, 32 

Howard, John, proprietor of Islington Spa, 94 

Hoxton, Mineral Spring at, 119 

Hughson, David, a historian of London, 32, 61, 113, 204, 314 

Innholders' Hall, 33 

Ireland, Mr., Lambeth Wells, 194 

Islington Spa, 89-96 

Katherine of Aragon, entry into London, 261 

Keats, John, at Hampstead, 148 

Keeffe, P., 194, 195 

Kemp, William, proprietor of Peerless Pool, 112 

Kensington Wells, 169-171 

Keyse, Thomas, Bermondsey Spa, 191, 192, 193 

Kilburn Priory, 159, 160 

Kilburn Stream, affluent of the Westbourne, 49 

Kilburn Wells, 158-164 

King, Thomas, Sadler's Wells Theatre, 87 

Kit-Kat Club at Hampstead, 146 

347 



Index 

Lady Well (Kent), 199-203 
Lamb, William, 270 
Lambeth Wells, 193-195 
Langbourne, Stream, 38 
Langbourne, Ward of, 37 
Large, Robert, Mayor of London, 32, 268 
Lawns, The (Beulah Spa), 227 
Leadenhall Hides Market, Well and pump in, 330 
Leaden Hall, Well and pump in, 330 
Lethaby, W. R., 29, 33, 39, 43 
Lettsom, Dr. John, of Camberwell, 209 
Lime Street, Pump in, 331 

Linden, Dr. D. W., on a mineral well in " Sun " Tavern Fields, 122 
Little Britain, Pump in, 336 
Little Conduit, by Stocks Market, 256 
Little Conduit, West Cheap, 183, 256, 257 
Little St Thomas Apostle Street, channel of Wallbrook, 31 
Loftie, Rev. W. J., 29, 68, 170, 171 
London Basin, The, 247, 249 
London Bridge Waterworks, 299-303 
London Spa, 96-98 

Lucas, William, proprietor of St. Chad's Well, 78 

Lysons, Dr. Daniel, 82, 83, 120, 122, 126, 132, 135, 152, 156, 158, 163, 200, 
208, 214, 232, 233, 283 

Macpherson, Dr. John, on Acton Wells, 157 

on Kilburn Wells water, 163 
Maitland, William, 32, 34, 61, 108, 112, 116, 252, 289, 315 
Malcolm, J. P., 61, 85, 88, 94 
Manning and Bray, 209 

Martin, Edward, proprietor of the " Horns," St. Pancras, 80 
Martyn, John, F.R.S., 213 
Marybone Spa, 167 
Marylebone Lane, 47 
Marylebone Manor House, 165 
Marylebone or Marybone Gardens, 165-168 
Matthews, William, 383, 284, 297 
Miles, James, at Sadler's Wells, 84 
Milton, John, 60, 123 
Mineral Springs, Analyses of water from, 175 

Ancient, 173 

Comparison of British with Foreign, 177 

Solid matter in, 175 
Miracle and Mystery Plays, 101-103 
Monk Well, 107 
Monro, Dr. Donald, 149, 230 
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 93 
Moore, Mrs. R. M., St. Agnes le Clair Baths, 1 1 1 
Morice, Peter, his engine described, 301-303 

Water Works at London Bridge, 299 
Morton, Dr., 84 
Muswell, 132-136 

Myddelton, Hugh, 307, 309, 310, 314, 316 
Myddelton, The Sir Hugh, tavern, 89 

348 



Index 

Nash, Beau, at Islington Spa, 93 

National Safe Deposit Company, excavations on site of their premises, 

34,35 
Neckinger Stream, 186-189 
New River, 307-311 
New River Company, Incorporation of, 31 1-3 18 

Shares, " King's" and "Adventurers'," 314 
New Spa, at Hampstead, 144 
New Tunbridge Wells, see Islington Spa, 91 
New Wells, Islington, 98-100 
Noel, Honourable Susannah, 96, 139, 150 
Norman, Philip, 30, 95, 105, 290, 291, 292 
Northampton, Earl of, 104 
Northaw or Northall, 155 
Norton Folgate, Well in, 326 

Old Bourne, supposed stream, 43 

" Old Dog " Tavern, Holywell Street, 62 

Old Kent Road, discovery of chalybeate water here in 1906, 210 

Pagents recorded in the fifteenth century, 259 

Palewell Common, East Sheen, Well at, 244 

Palmer, Samuel, 46, 67, 80 

Pancras Wells, 79- 82 

Park, J. J., 139, 164 

Payne, Mr., proprietor of St. Agnes le Clair Baths, no 

Peerless Pool, 112-114 

Pennant, T., 43, 61, 113 

Pepys, Samuel, 79, 96, 153, 166 

Peter, John, physician, 215 

Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, 87 

Pig's Well, or Pvke Well, Hackney, 123 

Pinks, W. J., historian of Clerkenwell, 67, 83, 86, 89, 98 

Pond, or Pound Street, Hampstead, 144 

Population of London, 251, 252 

Postern Waters on Tower Hill, 122 

Potter, G. W., 45, 145, 151 

Powis Wells, 168-169 

Prestwich, Sir Joseph, 251 

Price, F. G. Hilton, 30 

Price, J. E., 28, 34 

Pugh, David, LL.D. ("David Hughson"), see Hughson, David 

Purging Wells, at Shooter's Hill, 204 

Pyke Well or Pig's Well, Hackney, 123 

Queen Square, Bloomsbury, ancient conduit-head, 290 
Quill, small water-pipe, 274 

Radwell, synonyms, Rode WelLJRede Well, etc., 107 

Ray Street, Clerkenwell, 105 

Reader, Francis W., 27, 30, 296 

Rhone, Jonathan, attendant at St. Chad's Well, 77 

Richmond Wells, 238-244 

Rippin, Dorothy, Hampstead, 139 

349 



Index 

River of Wells, 29 

Roberts, Alexander, Sydenham Wells, 218 

Robins, W., on the names Tybourne and Westbourne, 51 

Robinson, Dr. William, historian of Hackney, 123 

historian of Tottenham, 127 
Rocque, J., plan of London, 49, 50, 51, 67, 133, 144, 158, 170, 183, 222 
Rode Well or Rede Well, 107 
Roman Wall of London, 30 
Rookery, The, Streatham (Old) Wells, 231 
Rosebery Avenue, 96 
Rosoman, acting at the New Wells, Islington, 99 

rebuilt Sadler's Music House, 86 
Roundhead or Bayswater Conduit, 282-287 
Royal Exchange, Drinking fountain, 334 
Russia Row, Well and pump in, 335 
Rutton, W. L., on the Serpentine, 50 
Rutty, Dr. John, 155, 230, 232 
Ryan, Mr., at St. Chad's Well, 77 

Sadler, Mr., music-house, 82 
Sadler's Wells, 82-89 
St. Agnes le Clair, 108-112 
St. Agnes' Well at Kensington, 171 
St. Anne, Hermitage and Chapel of, at Tottenham, 126 
St. Antholin's Church (Watling Street), Pump near, 325 
St. Bride's Well, 58-60 
St. Chad's Well, 74-79 

St. Clement Danes, Public wells in the parish of, 338 
St. Clement's Well, 60-65 

St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, Pump in churchyard, 330 
St. Dunstan's Well, Tottenham, 128 
St. Eloy, or St. Loy, Tottenham, 125-127 
St. George's Spa (" Dog and Duck "), 195-199 
St. George the Martyr, Southwark, Wells in the parish of, 339 
St. Govor's Well, 171 

St. John of Jerusalem, Priory of, 100, 124, 133 
St. John the Baptist upon Wallbrook, 33 
St. Margaret's, Lothbury, 32 
St. Martin's Outwich, Pump at, 325, 331 

St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, Pump and drinking fountain in church- 
yard, 335-336 
St. Mary's Nunnery, Clerkenwell, 104 
St. Michael ad Bladum, 256 
St. Mildred's Poultry, 33, 34 

St. Olave, Jewry, Pump against the church of, 335 
St. Pancras Well, 79-82 
St. Paul's Cathedral, Pump in churchyard, 325 
St. Saviour's Dock, 186 
St. Stephen's, Walbrook, 33 
Saint Thomas's Street, Well in, 339 
Sala, G. A., on a well in Holy Well Street, Strand, 63 
Salter, Mr., Proprietor of St. Chad's Well, 78 
Sanford, Gilbert de, 252 
Savoy, Well and pump in precinct of, 338 

350 



Index 

Schmeisser, Godfrey, analysis of Kilburn water, 162 

Serpentine, The, 49 

Shacklewell, 123 

Shadwell, 120-122 

Share-borne Lane (Sherborne Lane), 38 

Share-bourne Stream, 38 

Sheen, East, Well at, 244 

Shepherd's Well, Hampstead, 151 

Shepherd's or Conduit Fields, Hampstead, 47, 151 

Shooter's Hill, mineral spring, 203-206 

Shoreditch, Holy well at, 115-119 

Shoreditch, Pump in High Street, 326 

Siddons, William, Proprietor of Sadler's Wells, 87 

Sinclair, Dr. A. D., on waters of St. Chad's Well, 77 

Sion Chapel, Hampstead, 142 

Skinners' Company, 33 

Skinners' Well, 106-107 

Smith, Charles Roach, on a subterranean aqueduct at Moorhelds, 31 

Smith, J. D.. projector of the Beulah Spa, 222, 226 

Smith, J. T.,' 192 

Soame, Dr. John, 143, 149 

Spa Fields, 96 

Spotton's Wood, Tottenham, Well in, 128 

Stage or Landing Place of the Wallbrook, 35, 36 

Standard in Cornhill, 258 

Standard in Fleet Street, 266 

Stevenson, W. H., Charter to St. Martin's-le-Grand, from William I., 

28, 43 
Stocks Market, 34 

Stocks, Mr., Manager of Bagnigge Wells, 73 
Stow, John, 29, 32, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 53, 59, 61, 65, 100, 102, 103, 105, 

106, 108, 109, 117, 251, 252, 253, 255, 256,262, 266, 267, 270, 281, 299, 

3°°>3°5. 3"i 330I33 1 . 337 
Strand, Holy well in the, 62-64 
Stratford Place, Oxford Street, 47, 270 
Streatham Wells, 229-237 
Strype, John, the historian, 104, 106, 123, 258, 259, 289, 325, 326, 329, 

Subterranean Aqueducts in Greenwich Park, 294 
" Sun " Tavern Fields, Mineral waters at, 121 
Sweetland, W., on Langbourne Ward, 37 
Sydenham Wells, 214-221 

Tallow Chandlers' Hall, 33 

Tankard, term explained, 273 

Thermal Waters, their temperature, 173-175 

Thorne, J., 154 

Thorney Island, Westminster, 47 

Timbs, John, 62 

Tite, Sir William, on the Wallbrook, 27, 38 

Todwell (= Godewell), 106 

Tokenhouse Yard, remains of tan-pits on banks of Wallbrook, 28 

Tomlins, T. E., historian of Islington, 65, 74, 265 

Tottenham, Springs at, 125-130 

351 



Index 

Tower Gardens, Well and pump in, 329 

Tower Royal (Street), Channel of Wallbrook, 31 

Tun (or Tonne) upon Cornhill, 262 

Turnmill Brook, 42 

Turnmill Street, 42 

Ty-bourne Brook, course described, 47 

Tyburn Conduit, 252 

Tyne, term explained, 273 

"Upper Flask" Tavern, Hampstead, 146 

Vincent, W. T., on Shooter's Hill mineral Spring, 204 
"Vine" Tavern Fields, 121 

Wakefield, Miss Priscilla, 210, 234 

Walebroc, 27 

Walford, Edward, 50, 80, 99, 131, 160, 161, 163, 205, 209, 262, 284, 

285, 294 
Wallbrook Stream, 25-37 
Waller, J. G., 40, 45, 46, 48 
Ward, Edward (Ned), 85, 92 
Waterbearers, Company of, 275 
Waterbearers' Hall, 277 

" Waterman's Arms" Tavern, Bermondsey, 190 
Watts, Joseph, lessee of Peerless Pool Baths, 113 
Weatherhead, Dr. G. H., 222 
Wellclose Square, Pump in, 325 
Well House, Streatham Common, 231 
Wells Charity Estate, Hampstead, 140 
Wells, Flower-dressing of, 56 
" Wells " Tavern, Hampstead, 142 
Well Walk Chapel, Hampstead, 145 
Well Walk, Hampstead, 141, 148, 149, 150 
Well Worship, 55 
Westbourne Stream, 48 
Whitechapel district, public wells in, 325 
White Conduit, 264, 265, 292 
White Conduit House, 73, 263 
White Horse Estate, 225 
Wilkinson, R., 88, 89, 104, 257, 258, 278 

William the Conqueror, charter of, to St. Martin's-le-Grand, 28 
Wooden water-pipes, 295-299 
Wooden water-pipes at Clerkenwell, 296 
Woodford Wells, 130-131 
Wren, Sir C, 295, 312 
Wroth, W., 78, 80, 95, 98, 113, 139, 160, 198, 226 

Yeates or Yates, Mr., proprietor of the New Wells, 100 
" Ye Olde Bagnigge Wells," public house, 74 
Young, William, 217 



UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. 



